This endearing story about an old man and his almost equally aged cat is a reminder of the bond between humans and their animals.

Now, these two, the cat and the man, got along well because both were a tad crotchety. The man sometimes lost patience with the cat because as he said, "You never killed nothin'" - not a bird, not a mouse, absolutely nothing. What the cat did like was the man's potato soup, so the man reluctantly shared it.

These two did almost everything together; they even went fishing with the cat sitting in the prow of the boat looking very much like a hood ornament. Evidently, the cat loved to do that as she poked her face into the wind and seemed quite happy out on the water.

Problems arose one day when the man was already to go fishing and the cat was still asleep. So, as mentioned, he was a bit of a grump, and he decided to go without her. What was the cat supposed to do when she awoke to an empty house?

As always, Barry Root's lovely watercolor illustrations add richness to this tale of a unique, deeply felt love.

- Gail Cooke

What a moving and soulful book; I couldn't put it down. Through her edgy, finely drawn characters, Farish spins a powerfully taut thread across the decades of heartbreak and forgiveness that continue to be the legacy of the war in Vietnam. Her voice is as true and bright and clear as sunlight touching frost early on a winter morning in the New Hampshire mountains where the tale unfolds.