Sometimes, the unexpected turns out to be the best gift ever. That summarizes this book perfectly. Many of us multi-pet owners have animals we didn’t go searching for, but instead, they found us. And it happened to Gwen Cooper.
We first meet Homer as a little three week old kitten, who was taken to the veterinary clinic of Dr. Patty Khuly, who maintains a website here: http://www.dolittler.com/ Dr. Khuly took one look at this pathetic little bundle of fur, who was so sick many veterinarians would have made the decision to euthanize, and just saw something special in him. She gives him medication, performs surgery on his eyes and when he is healthy, she looks for a home for him.
Young 20 something Gwen Cooper, working in a non-profit agency for pennies, and living with a friend, has two cats of her own already when she gets a call from her veterinarian, Dr. Khuly. Dr. Khuly wants Gwen to consider adopting this kitten. Gwen reluctantly agrees to meet the kitten, but “no promises”.
You know what happens here. She falls in love. She takes him home. Many of her friends thought he would not be able to live a normal life. But he proves everyone wrong. He is spirited, courageous, mischievous and very smart. He might not be able to see, but you’d really never know, especially when he is jumping onto tall buildings, er, bookcases. He wins everyone over. Even the “non-cat people”.
Realizing that she needs to find a place of her own and make more money to care for her cats properly, she embarks on a journey to find better employment. She finds it in NY City. She lives in Miami. The story of how she is able to move the three cats to NY is funny, in the way it would be in real life.
The hardest part of the book to read was the part about 9/11 and how she couldn’t get home to her cats. Her panic was real. Anyone who has had a pet will be affected by this chapter. You FEEL her worry. It has a happy ending, and you really know it does as you are reading the book, as there is half the book left, but it will still make you hold your breath anyway.
The writing in this book was superb. I couldn’t put it down. This book did make me cry, at the beginning, when Dr. Khuly takes in Homer. It made me laugh. Homer reminds me a lot of one of my cats and also a little bit of my one-eyed cat. Homer didn’t know he had a disability and he lived life to the fullest and he made Gwen do the same, as she changed her life for the better.
A lot of these pet stories tend to delve too much in the author’s personal life, but in this book, although there was some of that, I didn’t find it distracting to the story at all.
And just one more thing. Homer is still alive today, so you won’t have to read about his dying at the end.
Verdict: A+; a quick read, perfect for the plane. Buy this book and share it and eventually it will land in your permanent collection.
