The Secrets of Lost Cats: One Woman, Twenty Posters, and a New Understanding of Love
*Starred Review* A lost-cat poster is an invitation to care about a missing loved one. So begins Davidson’s exploration of the stories she discovers behind the lost-cat posters she began to notice everywhere after she lost her own cat, Zak. A psychotherapist, Davidson often found Zak in her office with her clients, and after she found him again, she realized that she wanted to pass on the support she’d received while Zak was missing. What follows are 20 stories (2 of which are about Zak) of lost cats and their owners. Each story is illustrated with the lost-cat poster, from which the author initially deduced information about the owner (terse descriptions are by males, words like heartbroken denote females), followed by the stories told to her by the cats’ owners. Interwoven with tales such as the mystery of Shelby’s escape, of Joe caught in a garage awaiting rescue for three days after he was discovered, and of Bailey, stolen by a neighbor, are Davidson’s musings about love and relationships, anecdotes from her practice that gave her insights, and ultimately a road map of the journey she took as she learned about the inevitability of change. Cats serve as a metaphor for this change. As she so aptly phrases it, “I lost my cat—I found my cat.” A little gem. --Nancy Bent