Bloomfield - Call of the cats: what I learned about love and life from a feral colony

Praise for Call of the Cats

Call of the Cats is the most touching, honest, and well-written book I have read in many years. It absorbed me in laughter and in tears and in the acknowledgment of some profound and very human truths. Writing like this does not appear very often, but when it does it touches and delights something very deep within us.

Adyashanti, spiritual teacher, founder of Open Gate Sangha,

and author of The End of Your World

Andrew Bloomfield takes us on a journey of the heart that chronicles his unfailing commitment to a colony of feral cats. In a delightfully conversational style, he weaves in fascinating tidbits about the history of cats and his spiritual adventures in India and Nepal. He illuminates invisible strands that bind nature in a neighborhood with modern daily life. Animal lovers will want to savor this fascinating story that gives texture and voice to the mission of caring for untamed creatures who silently live among us.

Allen and Linda Anderson, authors of Angel Cats and

Angel Dogs and founders of the Angel Animals Network

One might think I would be partial to books about my favorite topic all things feline, especially wild felines, be they five pounds or five hundred pounds. But that is simply not the case. The truth is, Im only interested in books that are extraordinarily well written, and I find them to be few and far between. A poorly written book, even about cats, would leave me, well, cat-atonic. Great writing is great storytelling, and Andrew Bloomfield is a great storyteller. This book is, in a word, stunning! And the fact that Andrew Bloomfield was not a cat person but found his life miraculously transformed by the love of a little feral kitten makes these unpredictable heroes two- and four-legged alike totally irresistible. The taming of self-proclaimed narcissist Andrew Bloomfield by a tiny wild female kitten is a captivating read. Buy it for every cat lover you know, as well as every not yet cat lover. If this book doesnt win them over, I dont know what will. Little Tinys story is a big triumph!

Amelia Kinkade, author of Straight from the Horses Mouth,

The Language of Miracles, and Whispers from the Wild

Andrew Bloomfields Call of the Cats is like Born Free in an urban backyard, full of remarkable detail about the wild life around us and the extraordinary emotional attachments that can exist between human beings and the untamed animals that occasionally share our lives. This is a joyful book of spiritual insight and deep human feeling. It will entertain, uplift, and delight.

Bruce Joel Rubin, Academy Awardwinning screenwriter of

Ghost, Jacobs Ladder, My Life, and The Time Travelers Wife

With humor and wit, Call of the Cats illustrates the perils and rewards of rescuing animals that live at the margins of human society. If you have ever cared for an animal, this book will resonate with you.

Marty Becker, DVM, Americas Veterinarian and author of

Your Cat: The Owners Manual

Andrew Bloomfields heartfelt memoir is not just about his unconditional love for the feral-cat colony that he came to know and adopt. Its also a much larger portrait of how we can live with, and gently support, animals, who are all at our mercy.

Patrick McDonnell, creator of MUTTS and illustrator of

Guardians of Being

Copyright 2016 by Andrew Bloomfield

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The authors experiences throughout this book are true, although identifying details such as names and locations have been changed to protect the cats and the privacy of others.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bloomfield, Andrew, author.

Title: Call of the cats : what I learned about love and life from a feral colony / Andrew Bloomfield.

Description: Novato, California : New World Library, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016021610 (print) | LCCN 2016039820 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608683987 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781608683994

Subjects: LCSH: Feral catsCaliforniaLos AngelesAnecdotes. |Human-animal relationships.

Classification: LCC SF450 .B56 2016 (print) | LCC SF450 (ebook) | DDC 636.8009794/94dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021610

First printing, November 2016

ISBN 978-1-60868-398-7

Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-399-4

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my housemates Sophie and Heather, without whom this adventure never would have been possible.

And for beloved Gumdrop, who passed away far too young, just before this books publication.

Contents

Until one has loved an animal, a part of ones soul remains unawakened.

ANATOLE FRANCE

If I ever go looking for my hearts desire again, I wont look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isnt there, I never really lost it to begin with!

DOROTHY GALE, THE WIZARD OF OZ FILM, 1939

W hen I moved into a modest bungalow in Southern California, I was only vaguely aware that a colony of feral cats inhabited the deep foliage behind my home. Blood-chilling screams of kittens as they were routinely dragged off and devoured by raccoons and coyotes soon made it more than apparent I had inadvertently situated myself at the edge of civilization, the precipice where tame and primal met. I thought I had moved to Mayberry; it turned out to be Wild Kingdom.

Inevitably our worlds would collide. That invisible line of demarcation between us was crossed during a profound and poignant exchange one foggy morning when it became clear I had no choice but to intervene in the bloody drama that was my own backyard.

So began the tumultuous saga of my relationship with this group of skittish, wild, and sometimes fierce felines. I began to name, nurse, feed, house, rescue, and neuter them. Sleep was a rare commodity; I rose from my bed countless times to fend off their attackers. I maxed out credit cards on vet bills and emergency-room visits for myself when mauled by the very cats I was trying to help. Over the years, I became deeply enmeshed in the colonys cycles of births and deaths, rivalries and alliances, cliques and outcasts.

It promised to be a thankless task, with no expectation of reward. The late British writer Alice Thomas Ellis once described such relationships: . Men love women. Women love children. Children love hamsters. Hamsters dont love anyone. It is quite hopeless.