Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat

I really can't believe I read a cat book. But it was our monthly book club selection. I like animals, but I'm more a dog person than a car person. The only cat I ever liked was a little black creature named Lightning. And even though he wasn't blind, he's who I pictured while reading this book.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to like it. But I did. I more than liked it. This book is funny. And
The stories are so relatable to any pet owner, but I imagine even more so for cat owners.

On more than one occasion I'd stop, go back & re-read a section out loud that was too good not to share! And at one point I sat on my toilet crying. Because, hey, just cuz I had to pee didn't mean I was putting the book down! Gwen does a great job at making Homer show more come to life for the reader. Her stories & the great detail are beautiful!

This book was the first time I've heard anyone describe first hand what it was like to be so close to Ground Zero after 9/11. I was freaking out with her. Frantic. Angry at the officials.

This book is a gift. So thank you, Gwen Cooper for writing it. show less

I began reading Homer's Odyssey to help me understand how other cats learned to deal with vision problems. Homer has no eyes and my poor Maggie has only one with very limited vision. I was fully prepared to read about one tragic accident after another, because, honestly, that is how blind cats are expected to see. I was shocked and thrilled with Homer's antics. What an incredible cat!

I was also shocked at the level of writing in this book. Many animal stories are written by people with not the greatest writing skills. Ms. Cooper, however, clearly is a professional writer and good at her trade. I especially enjoyed her unusual phrases, her word choice, and her attention to detail.

My only minor complaint is the last few chapters of the show more book, when she is discussing her relationship and marriage to Laurence. I felt she would occasionally forget that the story was about Homer and not her relationship. True, the two are intertwined, but still, I wanted more stories about how Homer was fairing at 11 years.

Overall, I loved this book and will read it again, without a doubt. Very inspirational! show less

A friend and fellow cat lover gave me this book for Christmas last year, and I admit I put off reading it because I feared cuteness overload. But after two less than satisfying reads, I was in the mood for something very different. This fit the bill, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

Gwen Cooper was a young aspiring author when she adopted Homer, a kitten who lost both his eyes because of a severe infection. She was experienced with rescue cats, but not with a special needs cat like Homer. But Homer quickly demonstrated he didn't need sight to live a full life. He got along well with Gwen's two other cats, and easily found his way around her apartment, relying on hearing and smell to find things. He was playful and affectionate show more in a way uncommon to cats, and endeared himself to all who met him.

What Gwen didn't realize, as she cared for Homer's basic needs, was how much he was supporting her journey into adulthood. As she struggled to find consistent employment, Homer was there for her. He defended her against danger (really! I'm still not sure how they made it through that situation safely). When Gwen decided to pull up stakes and move from Miami to New York City (no small feat with three cats in tow), Homer helped Gwen to see that sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith, and not let others limit your potential. The one area where he wasn't much help was in her relationships with men, most of whom seemed put off by a woman who had three (count 'em!) cats. But eventually, that all works out, too.

As I said, this book could have suffered from cuteness, but it didn't. It also could have suffered from pretentiousness, but it didn't, mostly. Her writing is good, if a bit repetitive. There was one point where it seemed Gwen was going to pull out all the melodramatic stops and I thought, "oh, don't go there!" But this turned out to be one of the best-written sections of the book, where Gwen faced a stressful, life-changing situation beyond anything I can imagine. For a while there, I couldn't put it down.

And the best part: it all ends well. The book ends in 2010, when Homer is twelve years old and still living a full life. And he's still alive today. So you can keep the tissues on the shelf and just enjoy reading about the life of a pretty remarkable cat. show less

I don't even know where to begin with this one. This is a book that I won through Goodreads' First Reads program, and might be one of the best books I've ever come across. No, scratch that. It IS one of the best books I've ever come across. I laughed, I cried, I gripped the couch cushions in terror, I raged at the unfairness of people. In short, I ran the gamut of every emotion known to man while reading this book.

Homer is adopted as a blind kitten and quickly makes his new mom realize that she can't define him by his disability. You know there's a parallel right there, don't you? One of the quotations that hit me the hardest was when she said, "No one can tell you what your potential is." For Homer, his potential is endless. He doesn't show more know what it's like to see, so he can't assume that he's different. He attacks life with gusto, attempting the 6-foot leap from scratching post to closet shelf multiple times before he makes it. Nothing deters this little guy, and he's sure not going to let the blackness stop him.

Homer is the kind of cat who makes cat-lovers out of cat-haters. There's so much affection and love poured into his tiny body that the only way he can exist, it seems, is by sharing it with everyone and anyone. The one exception is the burglar who breaks into their apartment. Imagine a blind cat launching himself at a very large man like a mad banshee, and chasing said large man out and down the hall. Homer is bravery personified. (well, personified if he was a person. Maybe catified?)

The thing is, there are life lessons to be learned in this book. As the 'parent' of a disabled cat myself, I can see myself in Ms. Cooper. I never want anything to hurt my Pippin, yet I can't let myself hold her back. She was hit by a car several months ago, and hasn't ever recovered full mobility in her legs. She limps dreadfully, and people often look at us askance when they see her walking. I've even had people stop me and ask me if I know that my cat is injured. One kind little man offered to build us a scooter. So I understand some of what Ms. Cooper experiences with Homer and people's natural curiosity. I also understand what it means to let the disabled pet live their full potential without interference from Mom. It sometimes kills me to allow Pippin to go her merry way, but I know it would kill her to be confined. She's so naturally curious, and she's found all sorts of ways to accommodate her disability. I tell you what, when she runs, you can't tell there's anything wrong with her!

Homer is the same way, and I think that the similarities between him and my Pip made me get a lot more out of this than I might have otherwise. It makes me realize that I need to give people the same benefit of the doubt and allow them to live up to their potential. It makes me realize that unconditional love is the only way to go. It makes me realize that loving and being loved in return is a beautiful thing. It makes me so grateful for my beautiful Pippin and how much she loves her mommy. All in all, I think the biggest lesson that I'm taking away from this is that everyone, no matter who they are, has something wonderful to offer.

Please, read this book. Read this book and accept the challenge to be a little better. show less

What a terrific book! I agree with so many of the other reviewers, regarding the myriad emotional responses which this book elicits from its reader. Truly, I am in awe of lil' Homer and his joie de vivre. I laughed and I cried, and I learned a bit about uncovering some of my own inner strengths and abilities while reading about how Homer triumphed over many obstacles. However, the one surprise was Gwen's passages describing her life on September 11, 2001 and the week that followed. For me, hers was a most accurate account of the terror combined with disbelief that so many of us lived through. Her writing brought my emotional memory right back to the senselessness of that place and time. Without question Gwen Cooper is a fine show more storyteller, as well as a remarkable woman, and I am so happy to have gotten to know her through this book. show less

Homer is a small, black cat. He was found as a very young stray and brought into a vet's office with a terrible eye infection. The vet had to remove his eyes to save his life, and then tried to find him a home. Gwen took him in. Even though he couldn't see, Homer soon found his way around the apartment by touch; his hearing and sense of smell were also remarkably sensitive. The story recounts his many exploits- some funny, others just amazing, or incredibly brave- he once chased an intruder from their home, and regularly would climb heights or leap up onto furniture, shelves, etc that he knew were there even though couldn't see it. Funny how Gwen was the vet's last resort before sending Homer to a shelter- nobody wanted a blind kitten- show more yet as Gwen's friends, roommates and family got to know Homer, everybody loved him. She always had offers to leave him behind if she couldn't keep him (she had two other cats). He was just so engaging, bold, inquisitive and amusing. Most of all, his audacity and eagerness to be involved in life inspired Gwen when she had difficulties of her own. I thought the book would get tiresome when it shifted from talking mostly about the blind kitten to going over Gwen's struggles to find a new place to live, deal with a string of job losses, relationships with different boyfriends, moving back in with her parents and then out again- but through it all, her concern for her cats, especially Homer's safety- and tying things she learned from them back into her own story kept it intriguing. Then near the end of the book, something huge happens which I did not see coming, and I suddenly could not put the it down. I knew (of course) of this incident but had never read the aftermath described in such detail. This was a much better read than I expected going into it. Even the final chapters, about a new relationship the author got into, and how her three cats won over her boyfriend-then-husband (who was much more of a "dog person" at first) was really good.

from the Dogear Diary show less

Very, very nice. Especially because I went in expecting that the story would end with Homer's death, as most pet stories sadly do.

Happily, this turned out to be a book where nobody died. What an unexpected treat right after reading "Dogs of Bedlam Farm," which was a book where I discovered in the Introduction that no dogs would die in this book, because a reader asked for a story like that. I can pretend that all these pets are still around, if I like.

This book was sort of a remedy for my disappointment in "Almost French." I realized at the end that the author had been so circumspect about her relationship with her husband, I had no real clear picture of who the heck the guy really was and why he was worth learning how to put up with show more the insufferable Parisians, or even what he looked like (okay, I might have missed that. I was a little bored.) I always think that a memoir that tries too hard to be inoffensive to a major player turns out to be incomplete and insincere.

Gwen Cooper left me with no doubt about how she came to think Laurence was the only man for her. It was lovely and sincere, just like the many affectionate descriptions of Homer the Wonder Cat and his adventurous lust for life. Reading this book felt like spending an afternoon with them somehow. Exactly the sort of book I like the best. show less