Seeing in the Dark

Full disclosure: I am a cat lover and have two of my own.

I can't tell you how much I love cats. I have had at least one cat for almost all of my adult life and most of my childhood. As I said above, I own two now. I also feed a stray that lives under the bush in front of my apartment. I imagine I have the nickname "crazy old cat guy" behind some of the doors in the complex, but I would wear it as a badge of honor.

If you are one of those people who love cats, Gwen Cooper's Homer's Odyssey (Delacorte Press, 8/25/09), is for you. I fell in love with Homer immediately upon meeting him and gladly jumped for the chance to travel on his odyssey with him.

Thankfully, no one ever told Homer the odds were against him. Abandoned on the doorstep of a compassionate veterinarian, Homer had a virulent eye infection which necessitated removal of his eyes. As you may imagine, this made Homer's adoption odyssey a little more difficult.

If you know cats at all, you know that most of them are....uh....judicious with their affection. When you gain a cat's trust and affection, well, you have really done something. And, you've heard about cats who think they're dogs or even human. Well, Homer doesn't know the difference. You see, Homer is blind...but only in the physical sense. Homer doesn't know he's blind because he never had sight.

I don't want to ruin any of the tales of Homer's life by posting them here. Just suffice to say this book is at times uplifting, at times frightening, but always endearing. (And, he even survived 9/11.)I will tell you this: Homer is so wonderful and special that I feel now that I have three cats.

This book is subtitled "A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat." Please don't take my word for it, Homer is a wonder cat. Once you read of his adventures and the way he has lived his life, you'll wish you knew him.

Gwen Cooper lets us know how lucky she is to have Homer. I'm here to say that Homer is equally lucky to have a Mom like Gwen.