Paul Gallico the cat lover has written another of his delightful cat stories.
The people of Iveranoch in Argyll think that their resident vet Mr. Andrew MacDhui is in the wrong vocation and displays an unfeeling attitude towards their sick pets, being too ready to put them to sleep rather than heal them, to the great sorrow of their owners. His friend from university days however, the minister Angus Peddie knows that the attitude lies in his youthful desire to become a medical surgeon being squashed by his veterinarian father who forced him to follow the same vocation as himself. This plus the fact that his dearly beloved wife died from a disease contracted from a parrot. So it is a source of annoyance tovet Andrewthat his dearly loved seven year old daughter should choose as her closest companion Thomasina, a ginger female cat. In fact, during the course of the novel he eventually has to question his behaviour towards Thomasina hoping that jealousy has not pushed him too far in his uncompassion. He is forced eventually by the love between Mary Ruadh and Thomasina, the love between Peddie and God, the feelings of three young boys towards some cruelly treated circus animals and the care shown by so calledmad Lori for all creatures wild and domestic, that there is something greater than routine and cold treatment. You will follow the travellings of the murdered Thomasina through to her final climactic journey and you will be desperately hoping that through the final stormy scene all will end well.