Understanding Cats

This is a beautifully illustrated, intelligent, straightforward book that contains just about everything you ever wanted to know about cats. It avoids the cuteness of many cat books, dealing instead with serious issues of conservation of wild cats and expressing the author's special fondness for mixed breed cats (or, as he calls them, "Moggies"), because, he maintains, they are the purest breed of cat and closest in genetics and behavior to wild cats. (Mercifully, Roger Tabor avoids the annoying affectation of using the pronoun "she" in referrence to all cats.) The historical information on how cats become our domestic pets is particularly fascinating, and the health advice and care instructions for cats are right on target and quite useful.