“If the history of animal lovers in literature were ever written, Patricia Highsmith would not only secure a place among them, but would stand alongside creators such as Franz Kafka, Jack London, Elias Canetti, and J. M. Coetzee, being a prominent representative of the genre. In contrast to the harsh treatment she reserves for her personal notes about people, animals are held in the highest regard. It is a respect that comes from knowledge and familiarity, not from emotional motives.” –PAUL INGENDAAY

WHEN PATRICIA HIGHSMITH –according to some descriptions– heard on the radio the famous plea made to the nation by John F. Kennedy, where he emphatically stressed “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”, she got up, went to the kitchen… and fed her cats. The cats were her most faithful companions in life. There were times when she had as many as six cats at once.

This volume, filled with stories, poems, and sketches about cats, exclusively deals with the close relationship between the author and the four-legged creatures with whom she shared her life: tales with ghosts, satires, psychological profiles, or simply tender portraits sketched in pencil or in the form of poems.

“Let us not forget that besides literature she once studied zoology. The extraordinary talent of Patricia Highsmith to delve into the study of human existence is therefore not at all unlikely to stem from the scientific perspective of a zoologist.” –GERT UEDING, Die Welt, Berlin