The Age of Cats
From the Savannah to Your Sofa
by Jonathan B. Losos
Published by William Collins
ISBN 9780008339487
The author of this book is a lizard expert who happens to love and live with cats. He got interested in cat behavior, evolution, domestication, genetics, interactions with humans (from both sides), and roaming patterns (including cultural differences in whether or not domestic cats should be allowed to roam). He has also been involved in cats shows as a participant and a judge. Since he studies these things with regard to lizards, he decided to use his scientific background to look into the research on cats.
The book is fascinating as the reader learns about wild cats, various cat species, what is known about cats from the archaeological record, and how various wild cats behave. Losos does what the subtitle says--takes us from the Savannah to the sofa--as he describes the ways in which cats might have become domesticated and how domestic counts differ biologically and behaviorally from wild cats.
There are a few chapters around the middle of the book that are about cat breeders and the traits that become popular and that breeders try to select for. I must confess that I was getting annoyed when reading these. One breeder, who is also an artist, gushed about how breeding cats for certain traits is using genetics to create art. In my opinion, it's nothing of the sort--these cats are living, sentient beings not pieces of clay to sculpt at will. There will be many cats born as people like this try to get cats that look a particular way because they think it would be 'cool.' Near the end of this section of the book, the author acknowledges the arguments on both sides. He mentions that his sister is someone who only adopts rescue cats and black ones at that, because they're hard to place. As someone who is not a fan of breeding, I was pleased to see him acknowledge the issues. It was clear that he is on the side of the 'breeding is cool' side of the equation, but he fairly represented both sides, so I thought that was fair enough.
Another such situation arose in the chapters on research into outdoor cat behaviour. As I was reading, it seemed to me that some of the methods would cause great stress to the cats. Again, Losos is aware of this, discusses it, and gives his own opinion while fairly illustrating the arguments of those who disagree.
All in all, this is a well-written, thorough, and enjoyable book. One does not have to be a scientist to understand what he is writing about. My one quibble was the footnotes. I do not like them. They interrupt the flow for me. Again, he is aware of this and says early on that no one has to read the footnotes to understand the book, but there is some cool stuff in them.
If you're a cat person, I can certainly recommend this book. I learned a lot from reading it.
I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley. I thank them, the publisher, and the author.
5 comments:
I agree with you! These were not abusive breeders in the book--they do care for the cats, but I think there are too many cats already and it's unethical (in my view) to create more and more cats simply because one wants a certain stripe pattern or whatever. I'm not into designer cats and dogs and all ours have been rescues as well.
I did find the book really interesting overall and I learned a lot about cats, but the humans were a problem!
I think that this would be a wonderful gift for my oldest who is a self proclaimed "crazy cat lady".
It really was a fun read for this cat lover :-) Brought back memories of our cats. There's a series on youtube from NHK, a Japanese broadcaster, called A Cat's Eye View of Japan. The videos are only about 5-7 minutes, but they're a lot of fun. Some of what he wrote about reminded me of a few of those episodes.
Many thanks for your review, sounds a good book for cat lovers.
All the best Jan
I think it would be, yes!
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