Cats

Review by C. Keith:

It may be that all cats really want is a warm place to snooze and a nice little bowl of food twelve times a day, but I suspect that’s not true and when we tell ourselves that, we’re just trying to comfort ourselves for the harsh reality which is that cats are actually just as complex and yes, unfathomable, as we think they are.

So, these authors get that, and don’t try to sugar coat it. They admit it, they explain it, they move on.

I don’t know as much about cats as I do about dogs, partly because of the aforementioned unfathomability of the feline, and partly because I can pick them up and move them around and thus have had to spend less time delving into their psyches. So I assumed these authors would ask questions I’d never thought of and know more stuff, too.

And they did.

What I didn’t expect is that they’d make me laugh. A lot.

Just because cats are deep doesn’t mean you can’t find that funny. Being befuddled can be kinda fun.

Great gift book for cat lovers, too.

Review by D. Kujovich:

This could not be a more perfect gift for cat lovers! I read it in one sitting and laughed out loud all the way to the end AND I learned a lot along the way! Fabulous information communicated in a witty and captivating manner! And yes, it is true, CAT’S RULE! Another amazing book by my favorite author, Dr. Marty Becker! I highly recommend this book; it’ll put a smile on your face! Bravo!

Review by Teresa:

I bought this for my toddler granddaughter and she loved the book. There are two cats in her home, so she was familiar with cats, and loved turning the pages, looking at the pictures and feeling the “fur” on the pages as well as the push-pull features that made the book interactive. This was a great book for a curious little girl who loves cats.

Review by Brenna Beck:

I love every children’s book by Matthew Van Fleet — Dogs, Cats, ABC’s, Tails, all of them! I own them all and they’re the consistent favorite of every child in my house! The books are so great at encouraging interactiveness – the kids feel, point, pull and talk about what they are experiencing. Wonderful books!

Review by David:

I gave this gift as a stock stuffer to my cat-obsessed sister and we had more laughs over it than anything else around the Christmas Tree. If you have a cat-obsessive friend, neighbor or colleague, this is a great way to tease them about it!

Review by D. Muchmore:

I bought this toy for my kid in the hopes of sending a better message than all of those superhero action figures and he just loves it! This day and age, kids are programmed by our government to think that everyone is out to destroy us and that they need heroes to come and save us all. They forget that there are everyday people out there who need a little compassion and understandng.

I make my kids sit down every day for at least an hour and play with the Cat Lady. We talk about what has made her the way she is and we discuss different options of things we might do to help her. We get into conversations about what rle society plays in the creating of these people who seriously have issues and then we practice empathy role play by having our social services action figures come to her aid and get her the help she needs. It has created hours of educational fun for our entire family.

I recommend also purchasing the Albino Bowler and the Obsessive Compulsive action figures as well. We have used a cardboard box and built a small Mental health center/Halfway house where we keep our action figures always getting the help they need from the little doctors and nurses who work there.

This is a great product and I recommend it to anyone who wants to creep out their children and teach them a vaulable lesson about the differences in people all over the world.

Review by K. Barnes:

The turbo scratcher is simply a plastic circular base with a ball that rolls around the track on the outer edge. It has cardboard corrugating medium as a clawing area on the inner part of the circle. It is very simple, yet highly effective.
I don’t know why, but this has been a success with every cat — young and old — that I have seen around it (15 different cats). Once they get the ball moving, it really flies around the track! The younger cats manage to pull the ball out of it within 10 minutes, but they have a blast in those ten minutes. The smartest cats realize that it is more fun when it does stay in the track, though. A word of advice: don’t put this in or near your bedroom. If your cat feigns disinterest when you first bring it home, watch out if you are a light sleeper — a couple of hours into sleep you will wake with a start to the sound of the ball whipping around the track over and over and over again.
The two 14-year old cats that I currently reside with love this thing. They aren’t usually interested in toys (in our presence), but did manage a very disinterested tapping of the turbo ball if they were sitting on the mat anyway. These senior cats’ main interests in the Turbo Scratcher are 1) using it as a meditation/sleeping spot — it is so much more sophisticated than sitting ON the floor, and 2) actually scratching it (and these two are declawed!).
The fact that the ball comes out of the track so easily is a small disappointment (granted the cats do have to grab it with both paws to pull it out). You can easily pop the ball back into place, but some of us have too many places that the cats can hide such a small item.
Besides that, after 4 years, all our cats still use it daily. As a toy, well, its success may depend on the age and personality of the cat. As a scratching post, however, it is the only one I have ever bought that all the cats consistently used as such (though they do still get use out of the couch, too). I have been a “cat caretaker” for many many years so I do have some experience with several different types of scratching posts and this is by far the best.

Review by MattthewsMom:

I’ve been using the TurboScratcher since it came out in the early 80s as a toy and scratching item for my cats. I have NEVER paid for than about -13 for it, and the inserts used to be available from WalMart for 3/. The catnip helps get the attention for the scratching part, and once the see how much fun it is to scratch, they rarely go back to carpet or furniture. I’ve had more than one cat that never ONCE went for furniture because I made sure he/she had her own turbo-scratcher from the moment they arrived in my house. I have one that is a light blue from back in the 80s when everything was light blue and mauve. If left in the sun a bit too long, they do tend to get a little brittle, but while they feel a little flimsy, they are perfect for the cats. For those without carpet — use the rubber shelf or drawer liner cut in a square or circle a couple of inches bigger than the whole toy and it doesn’t move at all. I have never had any problem on any surface until I recently moved into a house with handscraped hardwood floors that are uneven. This trick worked wonders there and I suspect it would have been more stable on the tile floor in our last house as well, but our cat like to sleep on it in the window in the sun just as much as playing or scratching it. I recommend one to any cat that I adopt out at rescue, and for my foster babies, I give one to the family that adopts them because that’s what I teach them to scratch on and I don’t want them developing bad habits of scratching furniture or carpet in their new home — where they are often trying to cope with the unfamiliar. I’ve been told by my adoptive families that this was a really great thing to send esp since it was familiar and they were surprised at how much it was used. Before replacing the cardboard circle, make sure you turn it over and use both sides! if they seem a little bored and you are out of catnip, just pic up a little bag of it and it will totally get their attention again.

Review by B. Marold:

The `Cats’ DVD is a cinematic record of the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical as performed on the London stage in, I believe, 1998 starring Elaine Paige in the `lead’ role of Grizabella, although the only aspect of her role which warrants calling it the starring role is the fact that this character sings the `show-stopper’ song, `Memory’ which, if you are to believe writer / director Kevin Smith’s bit in `Jersey Girl’, has become a real Broadway cliché. The show is the most truly `ensemble’ performance I can think of. Few characters stand out for more than the length of a single piece, yet practically all characters are on stage for over 50% of the two-hour performance. Aside from Paige, the only character / actor who is remotely familiar to me is John Mills who is on for but two scenes and who is more of a prop than a character.

I make a strong point of the fact that this is a recording of a stage performance rather than a conversion of the play to a more realistic environment. This conversion is done for most Broadway plays turned into movies, especially for big musicals such as `Oklahoma’, `The Sound of Music’, `My Fair Lady’, and `Chicago’. But this conversion is not always successful. That is, the very big realistic setting is not always an enhancement. My best evidence for this is the film done of `The Fantasticks’ with a cast including such high powered talent as Joel Gray and others. As someone how has seen the play done on the live stage three times with three different interpretations, including a performance by the New York City cast, I can say that the movie failed to breath any life into the classic minimalist staging it gets in intimate little theaters. The movie was simply not as good as the live performance. This is clearly not the case with this DVD record. It gives us the stage fantasy that needs practically no embellishment with a real ally or cinematic whiz-bang.

Like `The Fantasticks’, I have seen `Cats’ on the New York stage sitting in a mezzanine seat about 4 rows from the back of the Winter Garden theatre. And, while there is something about a live performance that simply cannot be recorded, I will say that this DVD (and VCR) recording is quite as good a record as you can get.

My most important criteria for evaluating a movie on DVD or VCR is whether or not the work wears well after the second or third or fourth viewing. For example, `Chicago’ was fun to watch once, but I have no burning desire to watch it again. On the other hand, `Singin’ in the Rain’ I can watch about once a year and still find the time well spent. I will say with great conviction that I can watch this recording of `Cats’ once a year and enjoy every minute spend with the experience, because I have done so over the last few years. The performance and its record are so durable that my second most important criteria for a DVD, a good commentary track, becomes unnecessary. And, the commentary track is basically a waste of time for a musical anyway, especially a musical based on famous poems written 65 years ago by the most notable poet, T. S. Eliot in `Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’.

The play has the thinnest of plots based on a once a year selection of one Jellicle cat to ascend into some state of grace, presumably at the conclusion of their legendary nine (9) lives. The only other plot twist involves the kidnapping of the head cat, Old Deuteronomy, thereby preventing this feline apotheosis from being carried out.

This accounts for four or five out of the nineteen numbers. All the rest are based directly on fourteen out of the fifteen poems in Eliot’s little book.

One may think that this work has but a single hit song and, therefore, the remaining musical numbers are second rate. This is certainly not the case. I find myself tapping my toe to all numbers, with especial pleasure coming from `Jellicle Cats’, `Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser’, and `The Pekes and the Pollicles’. These are much more like stories in song than a simple ballad with easily remembered refrain.

Very highly recommended for anyone with a taste for musicals and worth a try for anyone who likes fantasy.

Review by J. Levin:

I am 77 years old.My beloved late wife and I were avid live theater patrons, both in GB and the USA. My wife and I were lucky to have seen our first “Cats” performance in London the first month it opened.Several years later we again revisited London and saw “Cats” again.Both times it was a remarkable theatrical experience.I just received my “Cats (Ultimate Edition)” DVD and it is the very best version of “Cats” I have ever seen. The extra bonus DVD that comes with the “Unlimited Edition,” explaining in minute detail, how the play “Cats” was conceived and its production, is truly worth the price of DVD alone.Joe Levin, Las Vegas NV