The Cat Who Came for Christmas: Review

It's about 1977 and the night before Christmas when self-identified dog person and curmudgeon Cleveland Amory finds himself on a mission to help rescue a thin, bedraggled feline from a New York alley.  The cat has obviously been on his own for a good while and someone has injured him.  The rescue is just for the night...Amory offers to house the poor kitty overnight until someone can come claim him.  But the unexpected happens.  The cat decides that Amory is who he wants to live with and from the moment Amory finds him staring at him the next morning the die has been cast.  Amory discovers what it's like to be owned by a cat....and how much he likes it.

The Cat Who Came for Christmas  by Cleveland Amory isn't really a Christmas story.  It's a story about the bond between a cat and his human that just happens to start at Christmas.  The story follows Amory and Polar Bear (as the naming of the cat goes) through a year of settling in to a life together. The stories about Polar Bear are charmingly told and remind me of the cats found in the Lockridge mystery series.  The cat is obviously his own person and that is relayed without making the story too cutesy.

The only part that really didn't work for me was Amory's long-winded section on the history of cat's and cat names.  Not that the history of cats might not be interesting in the right context.  I just don't think this book was it.  

Overall, a very pleasant read and a good one to finish off my Christmas Spirit Challenge reading for 2013.  Three solid stars.