Pages

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Calling Cat Lovers Everywhere!

Title: Buckley's Story - Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher
Author: Ingrid King
Genre: Pets, Memoir
ISBN: 9781440166242


Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views

If you’ve ever had the great honor to share your life with a pet, “Buckley’s Story: Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher” will not come as any surprise to you, but it will certainly make you shake your head in agreement and cause you to smile often, particularly when you’ll reach some parts which will greatly remind you of your pet’s habits. Animals could – and do! – teach us so much, if only we stop for long enough and truly listen to them.

Buckley was a small cat with a huge personality and an even bigger heart. She entered Ms. King’s life with a whisper, as the “office cat” in the veterinary hospital which was managed by Ms. King at the time. An extremely affectionate tortoiseshell cat, she became a constant companion who was very much missed when Ms. King decided to explore other career paths and left the hospital. After a couple of not immediately successful attempts to assimilate into Ms. King’s household, Buckley finally came home for good. Amber, the “original” cat sharing Ms. King’s home, had to adapt to the new situation, and she learned to share “her human” with another cat quite quickly. Sadly, Buckley was diagnosed with a heart condition after two years of her arrival into the new home, and the second half of the book deals with the treatments, challenges and final acceptance of the situation. The many moments of pure joy were always tainted with sadness over the inevitable final outcome of this situation, and Ms. King managed to capture the process of ultimate acceptance in incredible vivid detail.

Warm, intelligent and wise, this is a beautiful book that will touch the hearts of animal lovers, particularly those who are grieving over the loss of their companions or who are living with the knowledge that their companions will not be able to share their lives with them for much longer. It shall also prove useful to anybody who might be thinking of adopting an older and possibly not so healthy animal, showing very clearly why that might be a particularly good choice. The detailed information on Buckley’s diagnosis and treatment course, with clearly described challenges and rewards, might very well make some pet owners reconsider the path they are taking and make them realize that oftentimes we would do better to follow our instincts more and feel less obliged to blindly accept the mainstream information. And more than anything, “Buckley’s Story: Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher” by Ingrid King should make you realize again how much we should and do learn from the animals who graciously share their love and life with us.

Author Contact:
Ingrid King may be found at www.ingridking.com. Connect with her on
Facebook www.facebook.com/ingrid.king
and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/consciouscats

-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below:

1 comment:

Authors and reviewers would love to hear from you. Please feel free to include the URL (permalink) of your post in your own blog or website.