Cat in Charge
Series: Sammy the Cat, Book 1
By: Candy Rae / Narrated By: Elliott Crossley
Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
If you like cats, you’ll LOVE this!
Now you know me. I am rather fond of animals and currently, tho’ we’ve had dogs before, we live in an apartment without a yard and are limited to feline fluff balls. And here’s a little bit more about me: I love Animal audiobooks, but I OFTEN get impatient with books written from the animal’s point of view. Especially when it comes to books written by cats. The HUMAN authors have a tendency of making cats sound sneeringly cunning, self-absorbed, aloof beyond anything.
Okay, okay, okay. So maaaaybe cats are indeed a trifle like that, but really. They do get short shrift in books.
What I loved about Cat in Charge is that it’s written by Sammy (Samson) the Cat with Candy Rae, his human, only nipping and tucking it here and there to make it fit for audiences of readers/listeners. See, the human is necessary because, as Sammy points out, he has a definite joy in life, with this catching his attention, then that, then that over there, and wait! what’s this right here (Shiny!)? So while his dithering here and there makes total sense to him, he does realize that Candy Rae is needed to pull things together to get his story out there.
Sammy tells his story from his birth in a barn all the way to his life with My Lady in a nice plushy house with nice plushy beds. He’s very adamant that Cats are in Charge, with humans around to get things done, but he’s by no means smug. He’s a loving boy, likes to be called clever without thinking it his due. He was chosen along with his sister Delilah, cat name: Miep (sp?) who is almost as big as he is, but she’s muuuuch more brazen, boisterous, and daring. When Sammy, cat name: M’leep (sp?), displays his lack of tree climbing skills, it’s Delilah who sighs, tries to talk him down from where he’s stuck, and who finally has to climb up and show him exACTly where to put his feet, which branches to use, how to scuttle down.
The whole book is incredibly insightful and oh so funny. If you know cats, you’ll see much of them here, but you’ll see them in a whole new way. This isn’t your run of the mill Smug Cat book. It’s chuckle-inducing. And the chapter on Catnip is to die for.
And let me interject right here that Elliott Crossley narrates this brilliantly. That take on catnip? HiLARious! Sammy tries earnestly to let us know just how much catnip adds to life, but uhm? Well, through Crossley’s narration, we learn that Sammy might not be in the right shape to tell us what it means, but we certainly learn exactly what happens to a cat on catnip. Crossley narrates with flair, drama, comedy, and there is absolutely no kitty sneering, even if they do know they’re top of the list, above humans.
This is far too short a book. I would’ve dearly loved more. But it comes in at a price DEFinitely cheap enough to snap up. The only thing that marred it from 5-Star Perfection was that Sammy, and Candy Rae, had an opportunity to delve into feline grief, and well, they didn’t. Sammy’s grief was rather passed over and brushed by, just when my heart was breaking and I coulda had a nice ol’ cry. It just didn’t happen.
Still. A wonderful, wonderful little book.
And I am most certainly looking forward to adding the sequel, Cat at Christmas, to my list of audiobooks to listen to this coming up Holiday Season. Huzzah for felines who show us how Christmas trees really should be used…!
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