I'd hoped that this would be a more general guide to interpreting your cat however this book is mainly concerned with cat behavioural problems such as house spraying and/or soiling and aggressive behaviour. Happily, our cat doesn't currently exhibit any of these problems but it was still an informative book to read and I feel that I now have a much better understanding of why cats sometimes behave like that and how to tackle those situations if they did arise.

The author of this book is a professional cat behavioural therapist and the book is divided into chapters which clearly describe each problem, explain why a cat may be behaving in this way, sets out guidelines to stop this behaviour and then gives a couple of case studies featuring cats the author has personally dealt with. The case studies are often quite humorous and I was chuckling away to myself whilst I was reading this as well as reading excerpts out loud to my husband but the humour is very gentle and I never felt it was at the expense of the owners or cats featured.

There was also a chapter on the indoor cat which included lots of helpful tips about how to ensure you provide enough simulation for your cat if it can't or won't go outside. Halls has included detailed instructions on how to make the cat toys she takes with her when she visits her clients and I am definitely going to try and make 'The Octopus' which she claims no cat can resist!

Overall, an interesting and informative book.

A note of caution: this book is written by a British author and I have seen a couple of American readers comment that the book didn't discuss declawing or that the author promotes letting your cat go outside. I'd never heard of declawing before (I think it's illegal in the UK) and in the UK I think it is more generally expected that if your cat's been neutered/spayed then you'll let it go outside if it wants to. Otherwise, I would think that cats are probably fairly similar on both sides of the Atlantic. ( )