I love the cat breed illustrations on the inside of the front and back covers of this book. All of the cats look so happy! The book is full of poems that indicate the nature of cats, and anyone who has experience with cats or who has lived with cats knows exactly what Crawley is talking about in these cat poems.

In the poem "Brand X," a cat was acting for a commercial for cat food. Wouldn't you know it? When asked to choose between the brand the manufacturers were selling and the "other brand," the independent-thinking cat chose the "other brand!" I do not know how much name-brand cat food that cat will sell!

In the poem "Sleeper," readers see cats sleeping in multiple locations in almost any position (they are so flexible!) Cats sleep sixteen hours a day: twice as much as human beings! No wonder they seem lazy to us. They are not lazy; they are simply predators, and they can afford to sleep so much in the wild because not many animals are hunting them. However, prey animals such as horses sleep very little since they need to keep alert to avoid being eaten; horses sleep only two hours per day.

The poem "Grocery Store Cat" delighted me. I am always amazed by the laid-back city cats that seem so at ease amongst strangers in the city streets. Once, on my way to work, I saw a beautiful long-haired gray kitten who was so friendly that she let me pet her! Adorable!

The poem "Seventeen Cats" is about a cat-loving boy. Honestly, everyone was calling me a cat lady when I had seven cats (but it was really more like four cats and a few fur balls). I was simply cat sitting for a feline family until the kittens stopped nursing and I could find them homes. It was definitely a lot of work to take care of them... but fun, too!

Cat Poems by Dave Crawley, 2005

• Cat Fanciers' Association
• Books about cats
• Cat poetry books