The Cat Who Decided

Nobody wants the stripy kitten, born on a farm near Edinburgh so the farmer’s daughter takes him to her office in the city to make a mouser of him. Once there, he’s neglected – but rescued, in the nick of time, by the boss, whose wife nurses him back to health and calls him Mac. Content and cared for, he grows into a handsome, elegant cat. But there’s something missing in his life: he feels at the mercy of his owners and their circumstances, and he needs to find the perfect family.

The story traces Mac’s life, his search to be loved for what he is and to decide whom to love in return, culminating with his death, peaceful and natural, at a grand old age. Human characters, young and old, are finely observed, kind-hearted and well meaning in their different ways, while Mac is a sympathetic, complex character, affectionate and aloof, a Bach aficionado and a warrior, given to nocturnal prowling and ferocious fights.

This is a quiet story, elegantly told, compassionate about animals and realistic in its approach to death as a natural phenomenon.