The Secrets of Lost Cats
One Woman, Twenty Posters, and a New Understanding of Love
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
You've seen them. Hanging on telephone poles and posted on supermarket bulletin boards.
But have you ever wondered about the stories behind them?
When her orange tabby, Zak, disappeared, Nancy Davidson did what countless people before her had done. She made a lost cat poster. And after days of frantic searching, she found him. Nancy was ecstatic. Zak seemed happy, too—although being a cat, it was hard to tell.
Zak may have remained his old self, but Nancy had changed. From that moment on, she became acutely aware of lost cat posters. She studied their language, composition, and design. She was drawn to their folk art. Mostly, however, she was intrigued by the messages themselves—the stories behind the posters. It wasn't long before Nancy reached out to other owners of lost and found cats to offer empathy and support. They told hilarious and often poignant stories. They sought advice.
That's when Dr. Nancy, the cat lover and the seasoned therapist, stepped in and offered insights brought to light by her shrewd, but never self-serious analysis. What they told her—and what she learns – creates a captivating look into the heart of our relationships with our pets and each other. For seven years, Dr. Nancy followed the lost cat trail discovering answers to a question that eventually touches all of us: What will you do for love?
The Secrets of Lost Cats traces the evolution of Nancy Davidson's seven-year passion for lost cat posters. From the astonishing, almost implausible posters she encounters across the country—and indeed, the world—to the daring, dedication, and emotional complexity of the cat owners themselves, The Secrets of Lost Cats offers readers an absorbing journey that illuminates love, loss, and learning to love again, even more deeply.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When therapist Davidson's cat Zak went missing, she reacted by setting off on an intense search. Her efforts were met with more success than she anticipated; not only did she recover Zak, she also gained insight about her neighbors, and a curiosity about the other lost pets whose posters she saw. What followed was an exploration of the people and animals behind all the other lost pet posters in her neighborhood. The resulting book is a collection of 20 case studies, each named after a different cat. Not all the stories end as happily as Davidson's, and even hers is touched by inevitable cat mortality. However, each of the brief glimpses into cat owners' lives proves captivating. Davidson has an engaging writing style and clever concept; people's relationships with pets can reveal much about their personalities, and how a pet owner reacts when his or her pet is suddenly lost can be even more illuminating. Davidson has taken a narrow interest cat ownership and used it to examine human nature.