What Budda’s Reading Now
This past winter Budda and I have started a new daily tradition of reading for an hour or so on the couch in the front room. It’s warm and cushy and we snuggle down in a sunny spot. This gave me an idea. I occasionally do the book review thing with art/business related books. Budda could do one for the lighter reading sort of thing.
Today we just finished off Hannah’s Dream written by Diane Hammond. It’s a novel about a zoo elephant named Hannah, and the people who love her. I won’t spoil the story but I was surprised at how well written it was. You got a real feel for the characters and the hurts and difficulties each faced privately. The book is scattered with damaged characters who do great and wonderful things.
“They’d learned that not everything broken could be fixed, and that not everything ruined could be thrown away. Sometimes the damaged things were all you had to work with.” - Hannah’s Dream
Also there’s a great villain who strides around in a pith helmet while sporting a riding crop. This book is very positively written and is a feel good kind of read. (Mine and Budda’s favorite kind.)
Budda gives it 3 1/2 paws enthusiastically up. (Of course it’s a four paw system) It might have ranked 4 but there were far to few words devoted to cats. He really liked that the animals were portrayed as the emotional and intelligent animals that they are, without going over into the anthropromorphizing side of things.
As Budda often says “Critters don’t want to be human. We are perfect enough as we are.”
Now I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not anthropromorphizing here. He really does say that.
Tags: books
Great post, Mona! Will look for that book. Thanks for posting the Amazon.com reference! Your well written humor is a nice start to my day!
Of course he does. Cats are smart and they tend to be felinomorphic. Ari will enjoy reading with me and he really likes movies and films with cats in them. We often share big cat DVDs — like most cats he’s not particularly worried about scale when other cats are doing interesting things like hunting or mating or eating.
He makes pretty strong comments too, feline body language and vocalization is easy to understand after you learn it. Budda sounds like a truly interesting cat.
Ari has been taking care of me a lot lately and so did his little friend Gemini the Purring One (my daughter’s cat). When I get sick both cats come seeking me out and snuggle more to help bring the pain down. I know when it’s real bad because then Ari, who isn’t much of a “washing” cat, will come up and start grooming me patiently hoping to groom away the flare. It often works too. I wind up smiling and laughing softly at his tickling little raspy tongue and that knocks the pain way down.
Robert
Oh Robert, cats are so sensitive aren’t they? I imagine other animals are too, but have little experience to know for sure.
When I was crying one day my Bagpuss climbed right up on my chest and put one paw on each shoulder as if he was giving me a big cuddle! And then he started kissing my nose! I miss him when I remember things like that. Maybe if I wasn’t distracted by my courtship with Scott he wouldn’t have turned into a psycho cat!
Thanks for the book review Mona! I’m not a big fan of reading myself, but it sounds like a lovely story.
Thanks Angela I hope you don’t mind but I amended your 2 comments into one.
RobertI’ve always considered myself a dog person. Throughout my life it has always been my dogs who gave me comfort (and still do) when I’m hurting or sad. It wasn’t until Oliver and now Budda that I realized cats do the same thing. The quiet companionship is enough.
Undaunted I didn’t realize Bagpuss was a psycho cat! How so?