Customer Reviews

The Cat Who Cried for Help: Attitudes, Emotions, and the Psychology of Cats

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must book for all cat lovers. Great information, easy reading and much laughter. Its a book that once you start reading you just can't put it down. I wish all animal owners would take the time to educate themselves about animal behavior and owner and animal can all live in love and harmony.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I adopted a 4 year old female from the humane society. Little did I know I was bringing an avid biter into my home. After 2 months, I was afraid of her.
Reading this book was an eye-opening experience and basic education on why cats do what they do. I learned I was the victim of dominance agression. Learning the reason for her agression and how to approach it helped me to help her overcome this affinity for biting me.

This book saved my sanity and the life of the rescue/stray cat I adopted into my household.

My stray kitty came with the usual feral physical problems. He also came with a feral mindset that I couldn't break through. As a noctural creature, he slept all day while I was at work, and was up all night, and I do mean ALL NIGHT. He frantically went from window to window trying to escape, he howled, he loudly meowed, he jumped up on my bed for some cuddling, jumped down to eat, urinated on all my furniture and on me, while I lay in bed trying to sleep; and in general, kept me and my resident cat (who is very quiet, by nature) up all night. I thought I would go crazy from lack of sleep.

Then I read Dr. Dodman's book. It is a revelation. I had no idea there were pet behaviorists, no idea there were veterinarians who prescribed mood altering drugs for behavioral problems, such as Elavil, Prozac, Valium, to name but a few. My vet turned out to be quite knowlegeable in this field, and prescribed an effective medication which immediately saw positive results. All of the psychological problems vanished after I gave my cat its first tiny pill.

The information concerning animal behavior is excellent and up to date.

I cannot recommend this book too highly.

BUY THIS BOOK, IF YOU OWN A CAT!

I started fostering for Siamese Rescue and quickly realized that I needed a lot better grounding in cat psychology to effectively manage a multi-multi-cat household -- not to mention to help the cats who came to us with behavior problems. Being obsessive-compulsive, I ordered 8 cat behavior books. This one was the best by a pretty wide margin -- after reading it suddenly most of the various cats' behaviors began to make sense! ("Twisted Whiskers" was second best and also a very good book.)

I have four cats, all of whom have had behavioral problems due to abuse and/or abandonment issues. Reading this book gave me great advice and step by step guides on modifying inappropriate behavior. "The Cat who Cried for Help" is an entertaining and easy read that uses the author's own cases as examples of success and sometimes failure. I use the book often as a reference since each topic is broken into chapters with a clever title and funny case story to start.

For example, the chapter "The Writing on the Wall" deals with problems of kitty "bathroom" issues such as litter boxes, spraying/marking, UTI's, ect... Understanding why a cat does what it does, and what it's trying to tell me in the process has made our home a much happier, and cleaner, place! The importance the author puts on being patient is key to making this book successful. Solving feline problems doesn't happen over night- in our case it took about 5 months, but if you follow Dr. Dodman's advice and don't expect an immediate miracle, you will end up with a happy kitty (and owner)!

I had bought this book in anticipation of moving, with a new kitten in tow, and I wanted to make sure that I familiarized her with her new surroundings and was able to catch any behavioral problems early on. I was then surprised by how much FUN this book was to read! Dr. Dodman's case stories are really enjoyable and informative--almost like reading a little mystery. "Why's the cat doing this? What can we do now? Here's the answer!" He has a genuine knack for storytelling and at the same time provides valuable insight into the minds of our cats. I've been able to put several of his theories into action with my own cat, and we're both very happy with the results! I highly recommend this book even if you *don't* think you have any behavioral issues with your cat--it's stuff worth knowing, and a great read to boot.

Having five cats in my home, I found this book truly informative. I often find that vets, hoewever professional, are limited in their knowledge of my cats behavior "problems", or what I perceive as a problem. Dr. Dodmans book made me believe for the first time that someone really knew what was going on in those precious little minds. I have two "sprayers" in my home, until this book, all I could get from the vets was, you have too many, get rid of some. Not as easy as all that for me, I love these cats. Dr Dodmans book gave me hope. I searched until I found a DVM that was willing to work with me in trying to help my cats get along with one another and hopefully curb their need to reestablish territorial boundries a dozen times a day. Thank you Dr.Dodman.

An excellent book recommended by Feline Future. Gives good insight into feline bahaviour, with an ethical foundation, and intelligent approach that serves to enlighten the reader. Contains good information about declawing.

I enjoyed this book, but as a sceptic of mood altering drugs I did not find it as informational as I wanted. I liked when he recommended different approaches to changing the cats behaviour but found he always went back to medication. I wanted a few more tricks of the trade I guess, and got a hand full of anti-depressant pills instead. I think that there are other ways to change a cats behavioural problem than to pop them full of anti-depressants. I did like the scenerio's he put into the book though, and liked how they were followed through. He seems like a great Dr. but I was looking for a more hands on view of changing my quirky cats aggression compared to a pharmaceutical approach.

I was very happy with the condition of the product. My book was delivered on time and in good shape. The stories about the authors personal experiences in dealing with cats are interesting and informative and I have found solutions to have worked with my cat in reading this book!