The Cat Who Cried for Help: Attitudes, Emotions, and the Psychology of Cats

I have four cats, all of whom have had behavioral problems due to abuse and/or abandonment issues. Reading this book gave me great advice and step by step guides on modifying inappropriate behavior. "The Cat who Cried for Help" is an entertaining and easy read that uses the author's own cases as examples of success and sometimes failure. I use the book often as a reference since each topic is broken into chapters with a clever title and funny case story to start. For example, the chapter "The Writing on the Wall" deals with problems of kitty "bathroom" issues such as litter boxes, spraying/marking, UTI's, ect... Understanding why a cat does what it does, and what it's trying to tell me in the process has made our home a much happier, and cleaner, place! The importance the author puts on being patient is key to making this book successful. Solving feline problems doesn't happen over night- in our case it took about 5 months, but if you follow Dr. Dodman's advice and don't expect an immediate miracle, you will end up with a happy kitty (and owner)!

This book saved my sanity and the life of the rescue/stray cat I adopted into my household. My stray kitty came with the usual feral physical problems. He also came with a feral mindset that I couldn't break through. As a noctural creature, he slept all day while I was at work, and was up all night, and I do mean ALL NIGHT. He frantically went from window to window trying to escape, he howled, he loudly meowed, he jumped up on my bed for some cuddling, jumped down to eat, urinated on all my furniture and on me, while I lay in bed trying to sleep; and in general, kept me and my resident cat (who is very quiet, by nature) up all night. I thought I would go crazy from lack of sleep. Then I read Dr. Dodman's book. It is a revelation. I had no idea there were pet behaviorists, no idea there were veterinarians who prescribed mood altering drugs for behavioral problems, such as Elavil, Prozac, Valium, to name but a few. My vet turned out to be quite knowlegeable in this field, and prescribed an effective medication which immediately saw positive results. All of the psychological problems vanished after I gave my cat its first tiny pill. The information concerning animal behavior is excellent and up to date.I cannot recommend this book too highly.BUY THIS BOOK, IF YOU OWN A CAT!

I started fostering for Siamese Rescue and quickly realized that I needed a lot better grounding in cat psychology to effectively manage a multi-multi-cat household -- not to mention to help the cats who came to us with behavior problems. Being obsessive-compulsive, I ordered 8 cat behavior books. This one was the best by a pretty wide margin -- after reading it suddenly most of the various cats' behaviors began to make sense! ("Twisted Whiskers" was second best and also a very good book.)

Dr. Dodman's book, "The Cat Who Cried for Help" is incrediably insightful and informative in an easy to read format. It is apparant that he has an exceptional understanding of feline behaviour and that he truly cares for the well being of cat and owner. His explaination of prescriptions used in behavior modification gave me the confidence to move forward this with method of treatment. When you have a problem with a cat you love and when parting with that cat is absolutely not an option, Dr. Dodman comes in with welcome, practical and sound advice. Anyone who loves cats will appreciate and benefit by reading this book.

Having five cats in my home, I found this book truly informative. I often find that vets, hoewever professional, are limited in their knowledge of my cats behavior "problems", or what I perceive as a problem. Dr. Dodmans book made me believe for the first time that someone really knew what was going on in those precious little minds. I have two "sprayers" in my home, until this book, all I could get from the vets was, you have too many, get rid of some. Not as easy as all that for me, I love these cats. Dr Dodmans book gave me hope. I searched until I found a DVM that was willing to work with me in trying to help my cats get along with one another and hopefully curb their need to reestablish territorial boundries a dozen times a day. Thank you Dr.Dodman.