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Simultaneously affectionate and suspicious, adaptive and intractable, dependent and aloof, cats are the least tamed and yet the most successful domestic species. Drawing upon new research into cat genetics, brain chemistry, evolution, social behavior, and interaction with humans and fellow felines, acclaimed author and scientist Stephen Budiansky explores the mysteries of these amazing creatures. Wide-ranging, lively, and engaging, The Character of Cats also covers the full spectrum of feline fact and lore, from history, superstition, and religious imagery to hunting patterns, sexual behavior, and preferred colors. This smart, wonderfully readable book finally gives cats their due.
Customer Review: Insightful and Easy to Read
This book is chock full of amazing and insightful cat lore. While I'm sure that I may have been able to read much of what was in this book elsewhere, it provides an excellent summary and review of what man knows about those amazing cats that have followed us through the ages. The author provides all of this info through very conversational and often humorous text that was very easy to read. I found myself laughing out loud as well as nodding in agreement as I suddenly understood more of why my cat's are the way they are. Speaking as a scientist myself I think it is also a robust and well-researched piece. In the back you'll find a very long list of citations to scientific work. While it may not be perfect and may not have all the answers it's clear that the author took a lot of time to try to get things right and to present as clear and accurate of a picture as possible.
Customer Review: Elementary and bland
I picked up this book under the impression that some of the quirky things my cats do might be explained and substantiated. I wanted to learn more about their thought processes and evolutionary background. Overall, this book did not live up to my expectations. Stephen Budiansky starts off the book with an interesting historical perspective on cats. He also briefly describes some evolutionary background as well as close relatives to Felis silvestris catus, body color patterns, and similarities and differences between feral and domesticated cats. From there, Budiansky delves into the behavior patterns of cats and their various personalities. He discusses things such as low-light vision in cats, the odd reactions some cats have to cat nip, the tendency to mark territory, the tendency to eat plants, and learning capabilities. He also gives some descriptions of what might be done to discourage unwanted behavior in your pets, which is probably the most beneficial aspect of the book (except for the fact that one of his suggestions is prescribed drugs). Budiansky covers a vast plethora of information within this book, however, none if it is really described in very much depth. Furthermore, I found it extremely discouraging that much of the behavior described in this book seems to be mere observations made by Budiansky without much (or, at times, any) explanation, and is only rarely backed by scientific studies. Much of the knowledge presented in this book is general information that anyone who has owned cats for any length of time, and paid any attention to their behavior, should already be aware of. Frequently Budiansky writes off various cat behaviors by merely stating "it's hard-wired in their brain." As a biology major, I found these explanations to be extremely elementary and quite lacking. In addition, this book was just a bland read. Though I was determined to get through it, it has taken me a couple of months of picking it up and reading a couple of pages at a time before I had to put it down and save it for another day. If anything, this book might be used as a jumping off point from which to determine what aspects of cats you might want to research in more depth, since Budiansky barely glosses over the surface of everything he discusses (how much detail can he really get into in only 201 pages?). As someone who has been a cat owner for about seventeen years now, I didn't feel that this book added much to my knowledge of cats, and would thus not recommend this book to those who own cats and are already familiar with their behavior. If you aren't a cat owner and are interested in the quirky cuteness that is Felis silvestris, then this might be more worthwhile.


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