Product Description

The only fully comprehensive guide to “all things feline,” from the host of Cat Chat on Martha Stewart Living Radio.

Finally, a definitive book that delivers many unknown facts about every aspect of caring for and sharing your life with a cat, ranging from proper nutrition and strange behavior to medical care and multi-cat households, to grooming and geriatrics. The Cat Bible explains the mysteries of feline behavior to owners who are devoted to their cats without being able to fully understand them. It offers straightforward solutions to the problems that cause people to give up their cats, many of which are preventable, including litter box avoidance, furniture scratching, and physical ailments.

There are more than 90 million American households that count cats as family members, but they are a vastly underserved population, devoted to their kitties, yet bereft of all the public attention, programming, and print devoted to dogs. Now, bestselling author and investigative journalist Tracie Hotchner offers them The Cat Bible, with straightforward, fact-filled solutions to health and behavior problems, based on years of research into the real reasons behind these issues. In the same warm, straightforward style that attracts devoted listeners to her radio shows, Tracie tackles controversial topics such as the truth about commercial dry pet foods and their dangers, bringing readers the latest facts on every topic that affects a feline’s well-being.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220537 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Tracie Hotchner is the author of The Dog Bible: Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know (Gotham Books, 2005) and the million-copy bestseller Pregnancy & Childbirth, for which she appeared on national talk shows ranging from Today to Oprah. Tracie’s two areas of pet expertise have made her a national radio personality twice over, and she hosts two live, weekly call-in shows: Cat Chat on Martha Stewart Living Radio and Dog Talk, her own NPR show, produced by WLIU.FM at Southampton College.

Customer Reviews

Inconsistent
The author has very strongly stated opinions, but she is not always consistent. For example: she goes through a list of all the "bad" things that can be found in cat food, then gives a list of "recommended" brands and flavors. One of the recommended flavors--which happened to be the only one I had on my shelf--is full of the "bad" and has none of the "good" ingredients she talked about.

The author claims that "The Cat Bible" is all-inclusive. However, she intentionally does not address the issues of pregnancy and birth because she feels that ALL cats should be neutered with the exception of purebred breeding stock. (p. 321) I love cats, but I don't particularly want to own a purebred cat. The book definitely does not help me with the care of the pregnant stray I just took in.

I'm sure there is a lot of good information in this book. However, I would want confirmation from another source rather taking taking this literally as my "Cat Bible." Therefore, I feel that this has been a waste of money.

The Cat Bible
I found this book to be the most comprehensive cat care reference tool I've ever read. The glossary is extremely well organized, helpful and time-saving.

apparently author is a dog person
Whoa. I am a cat lover. In fact, I am a lover of all animals. Anyone who "gives away" their animals, as far as I'm concerned, might as well be abandoning their children. And that's why I cannot recommend this book.
On page 252, Hotchner blithely discusses giving away 2 cats, Bert and Ernie, after acquiring a third dog. Huh? This is the same woman who chides the reader for not understanding that a cat is a 10 to 20 year commitment? I don't get it.
Well, apparently she acquired a puppy, which then created a pack mentality among the dogs. "So I gave the cats to a friend."
She was about as emotional as discussing discarding day-old bread.
So the cats had been living happily with your two dogs before you brought a new puppy into the home? Wouldn't it make sense to find the relatively emotionally unattached puppy a new home rather than destroying the lives of your two devoted cats?
Bottom line: I wonder if the DVM who endorsed this book thoroughly digested that heartbreaking nugget...ditto the humane society endorser.
The subhead of this book should be altered to read: Everything your Cat Expects You to Know: Please don't Abandon Me. I will Bond to You. I need to Know You are There for Me forever.
If someone writes a "Cat Bible" it would help if 1) they actually had credentials in the veterinary field and b) they actually liked cats.