BOOKS: Cat Angels

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Cat Angels, edited by Jeff Rovin, illustrated
by Ernie Colon. Harper Paperbacks (10 East
53rd St., New York, NY 10022-5299), 1995. 96
pages; $6.99.

Cat Angels ties the revived interest in angels to
the perennial popularity of cats. From the rust-and-white
tabby on the front cover, complete with wings, halo, and
demurely heavenward-looking eyes, to the back cover,
bearing quotations admitting feline slips from grace, this
book is a charmer. You will find quotations from Jules
Verne, pet tombstones, Lowell Thomas, Mark Twain,
Gertrude Jekyll, Henrich Heine, and Charlton Heston,
among others, interlaced with editorial comments about
cats in world religions. There are a few rather cloying
Victorian verses, saved by sharing the page with funny little
sketches by Ernest Colon, whose cats usually appear to
be in free fall rather than angelic flight.

My favorite quotation is from Jean Cocteau: “I
love cats because I love my home, and little by little they
become its visible soul.”
If you lack an angel to greet your homecomings,
and cozy up on your lap while you read, you have only to
visit the nearest animal shelter and choose among furry
candidates well-suited for the role.
––Phyllis Clifton