Samantha Mooney

This is a beautifully written book that describes the joys and sorrows of sharing one's life with cats. In the first pages, no description was more poignant to me than ~ "The song that Clancy purred to me the first night he entered my life became a vital part of my days for the next two years." I was instantly taken back to the first night with each of the cats that have shared my life ~Russian Blue, Lovely Sunshine (L.S. for short) and tabby, Jolie ~ and our shared time like a quick video playing highlights of all the special memories of spontaneous moments that transpire into a litany of unconditional love.

Samantha Mooney captures part of her life journey devoting her working hours and much of her spare time to the often terminally ill cats in the Cancer Therapy Unit of N.Y.'s Animal Medical Center. It is a precious memoir by an insightful woman of sharing life with cats ~ each unique, each precious.… (mehr)

A book for cat lovers.

I enjoyed this book, a memoir by a veterinary nurse who was working in the oncology section of New York City's Animal Medical Center. She obviously has a passion for cats; she seems to love those in the treatment centre as much as her growing population at home.
Sometimes I thought she seemed to relate to cats better than people and the sorrow at the loss of a couple of her most loved patients was possibly even greater than at the death of her father.

The book was published in 1983, so I'd expect that some of the treatments are now dated. Similarly, I wonder if cats would be allowed to wander around the facility with such ease, particularly Clancy, who had left his own household of cats because he might pass on his form of feline leukemia. In spite of being potentially contagious, he was given free reign of the offices and waiting area.
I was also most surprised to find that Ms Mooney took certain cats (never her own) on holiday with her. When we moved house our cats were petrified for days, I cannot imagine a 'holiday' being a pleasant experience for them.

There were quite a few cats throughout the book and I struggled to remember all their names and ailments, but they were all adorable and it was so sad when any of them died. There was an overall positive feel however, as the doctors and staff lovingly treated each animal, hoping to increase its life span and quality of life.

This is definitely a book for cat lovers, and if that's you, then snap this one up.… (mehr)

A brief book on life, death and the steps in between. It goes beyond being an animal story, covering the universal topics of death, the brevity of life. However brief, each life is precious and the connections we make last beyond time. The author's description of how life and death decisions are handled in a animal cancer ward are realistic and poignant. Loving a pet almost always means you will have to face losing one and this book has a good handle on how to gracefully and with kindness let them go… (mehr)