I wonder if anyone else has heard of Cleveland Amory (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Amory). Considering how prolific he was in the fight for animal rights and humane treatment of animals, I'm rather ashamed to admit that until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know who he was.
Sadly he's no longer with us (he passed on in the late 90s) but as well as his animal welfare work, he wrote a series of books about an injured and starving cat he rescued from an alley in New York one snowy Christmas Eve. I've just finished reading the first one - The Cat Who Came For Christmas - and if you're in the mood for a heartwarming but unsentimental book about a hitherto dog person who became owned by a cat, I can't recommend it highly enough. It can be bought pretty cheaply on Amazon.
It's not only an interesting journey into becoming a cat slave, it's also peppered with fascinating facts about the history of cats, as well as mentioning some of the famous animal loving people Amory either met or knew about in the US in the 60s and 70s (for instance, did you know that Robert De Niro once checked in to the Beverly Hills Hotel in Hollywood with his seven cats when he was on a film shoot?
).
I'd like to quote the last paragraph of The Cat Who Came For Christmas as I know it will give you all a warm, fuzzy feeling (but won't spoil the story):
"But I hope even more that those of you who have never had an animal will hie yourself to the nearest shelter, and adopt one. If you do, you will surely find that that animal will give you, every day of his or her life, not only joy and companionship but also that very special kind of love which can be understood, as I said at the beginning, only by those fortunate enough to have been owned by one,"
