Eyewitness Handbook: Cats
David Alderton
Dorling Kindersley, Inc.
Nonfiction, Pets
Themes: Felines
*****
Description
Using many pictures and informative captions, this guide outlines the various colorations and breeds of the domestic feline, with some notes on general cat information and care.
Review
This is the best cat guide I have found so far. With clear photographs as reference, the many colorations and their subtle variations are clearly defined. The text also contains plenty of useful information on breed origins and cat care in general, plus the occasional trivia. Eyewitness wisely refrains from suggesting that any breed cannot adapt to indoor life, unlike Simon & Schuster. It's a great read for any cat fancier. The beginning section on Origins shows how DNA testing is throwing the old categorization of wild cats into "big" and "little" groups in the dumpster, a subject I haven't seen discussed elsewhere. I also had trouble tracking down other mentions of the "new" pumalike wild cat which they claim was discovered in the hills of South America, the Onza. (I have since learned from other sources that the Onza has proven to be a cougar subspecies, albeit a strikingly unusual one.) I recommend it to anyone else who loves cats.