Alderton - Book Reviews

***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible

Eyewitness Handbook: Cats
David Alderton
Dorling Kindersley, Inc.
Nonfiction, Cats
*****
Cats (Eyewitness Handbooks)

DESCRIPTION: Using many pictures and informative captions, this guide outlines the various colorations and breeds of the domestic feline, with some notes on general cat information and care.

REVIEW: This is the best cat guide I have found so far. The colors are clearly shown and defined, and Eyewitness wisely refrains from suggesting that any breed cannot adapt to indoor life, unlike Simon & Schuster. It's a great read for any cat fancier. The beginning section on Origins shows how DNA testing is throwing the old categorization of wild cats into "big" and "little" groups in the dumpster. Try as I might, I can't find anything more on this, or on the "new" pumalike wild cat which they claim was discovered in the hills of South America, the Onza. Is it just another Florida Panther (a cougar subspecies), or is it something else? (I have since learned from other sources that the Onza has proven to be a cougar subspecies, albeit a strikingly unusual one.) Overall, this is one of the best cat guides I own, and I recommend it to anyone else who loves cats.

You might also enjoy:
The Mini-Atlas of Cats (Andrew DePrisco and James B. Johnson, Nonfiction - A guide to cats domestic and wild)
The ASPCA Cat Care Manual (Andrew Edney, B.M.V., Nonfiction - Cat care)
Secrets of the Cat (Barbara Holland, Nonfiction - Cat guide and anecdote collection)
Good Owners, Great Cats (Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson, Nonfiction - Raising and owning well-adjusted cats)
Guide to Cats of the World (Howard Loxton, Nonfiction - Illustrated cat breed guide)
Cat Breeds of the World (Desmond Morris, Nonfiction - Cat breeds popular and obscure)
The Cat Who Couldn't See in the Dark (Howard Padwee, D.V.M. and Valerie Moolman, Nonfiction - A vet recalls stories of feline patients and their owners)
Cats for Dummies(Gina Spadafori and Paul D. Pion, DVM, DACVIM, Nonfiction - Cat care)
Simon & Schuster's Guide to Cats (Mordecai Siegal, editor, Nonfiction - Cat guide)

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