Black Cat

Black Cat

Picture book
Imagine my surprise when, shelf reading in the juvenile wing of
the the Orono Public Library, I saw a black cat with gold eyes,
looking just like my Tobago, staring at me from the cover of
Christopher Myers' Black Cat! Talk about serindipity! Myers is the
very talented son of his deservedly famous writer father, Walter Dean
Myers. And at UMaine we've just raised the flag to commence the
celebration of Black History Month.
"black cat, black cat,
cousin to the concrete,
creeping down our city streets
where will you live? where will we meet?"
Through lyric poetry and vivid collage art, readers get to
follow a city cat through Harlem and Brooklyn streets: listening to
music filtering through project windows, hunting rodents in subways,
tightrope walking on chain link fences...the epitome of beauty, grace,
resilience, totally at ease on its turf. And in the end the author
decides that its home is anywhere it chooses to roam.
What Myers doesn't mention is the danger that lurks at every
turn for even the most street savvy cats. Feral cats live much
shorter, more brutalized lives than felines with homes. And there are
so many of them.
Black Cat can enable families to examine this important issue.
How do the homeless cats in your locale get by? What dangers do they
face? What, if anything, is being done to help them?
Families can do a lot to help homeless cats: raising money for
shelters, volunteering at them, fostering young or skittish cats so
they can become more adoptable...
...and if the situation is right, adopting their own family
furever friend.
On a purrrsonal note, Tobago keeps adapting beautifully to her new
home. She's been with Eugene and me a little over a month. She seems
to be a very happy little girl.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who work so hard to match
cats with families and homes.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod