PAT WIDMER'S CAT BOOK

Though Widmer (Pat Widmer's Dog Training Book, 1977) is the founder of a low-cost pet clinic in New York City and has 14 cats at home, it's hard to take her seriously when she devotes a goodly chunk of her cat care book to descriptions of misunderstood ""cat ladies"" (one couple cares for 40 ailing cats through meditation, pyramid power, and divine guidance), and suggests that elderly cat owners look into a good retirement home--for the cats. On caring for cats, moreover, Widmer intermingles opinion with fact. Her recommendation for an all-dry-food diet, supplemented with vitamin C, fails to acknowledge the potential health risks from high-ash, low-moisture meals. The meager diet recommended for all fat cats--one tablespoon of food daily--suggests some sort of obsession with obesity. But the point Widmer seems most determined to get across is the obligation of owners to neuter and declaw their cats. Her prodeclaw argument, however, doesn't consider the other side of a highly controversial cat concern. Managers of multi-cat households may find Widmer's commonsense tips of value (where to hide the garbage from feline marauders, how to keep bully cats at bay); otherwise the book is filled with speculation, theory, and unbalanced arguments.