FEARLESS FELINES

So much is said about heroic dogs, but what about fearless felines?

Hamilton collects the life stories of 30 cats of note. Each is profiled in a single-page bio that highlights its special contribution to history and a full-page, full-color illustration by one of 17 artists. Arranged alphabetically, the accomplished kitties are from all corners of the map and all walks of cat life. There’s Félicette, the first catsronaut, from France; Dewey, the library cat from Iowa that inspired a bestselling book; Scarlett the New York momma cat who saved her kittens from a fire; and Oscar, the first bionic cat, with two prosthetic legs. Cats can even be war heroes, as Pitoutchi, who saved his human in the trenches of World War I, and Pyro, a World War II flying ace, both demonstrate. Interleaved among the biographies are two-page spreads of additional feline facts and kitty trivia—the likes of “Silly Cat Superstitions,” “Mighty Mousers,” and “Feline Muses” to the famous—tied in some way to the bios that precede them. At the outset is a very brief timeline of feline-human interaction from 7500 B.C.E. to 2018; and at the close is a timeline of the profiled pusses, a glossary, furr-ther reading, websites, and author and illustrator bios.

A cornucopia for cat connoisseurs.