Product Description

For years, Tom Cox might have seemed like a regular, hard-living sort of bloke -- a lover of late nights, rock music and beer -- but he had a dark, furry secret. Tom was a cat lover. For a while, he kept his passion in check, but there was only so long he could postpone his true dream, especially after he met Dee, his moggy-loving soulmate. He let London and his job as a rock critic behind, and he and Dee, her cat Janet and three new kittens, moved to a remote part of Norfolk. They thought it would be easy. They thought their cat madness had reached its limit. They were wrong. In Under the Paw, Tom records the chaos of owning seven of the most charismatic, idiotic and duplicitous cats in the country. Suddenly on call around the clock for multiple sets of whiskers, Tom encounters death, depression, flying fur and the first human sentence spoken by a feline. Running through all the maelstrom is the heartbreaking story of his relationship with The Bear, his oldest cat: a 'painfully sensitive' survivor moggy who may or may not be an evil genius.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3251 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Kate Atkinson
'Tom Cox is a very funny writer, and he knows his cats'

Julie Burchill
'Brilliantly funny and moving ... will act as an antidote to all the soppy, sloppy, spinsterish rubbish written about our feline f(r)iends'

About the Author
Tom Cox's writing appears in many national newspapers. He is the author of four previous books, NICE JUMPER, EDUCATING PETER, THE LOST TRIBES OF POP and BRING ME THE HEAD OF SERGIO GARCIA. He lives with his wife in Norfolk.

Customer Reviews

Any animal lover will love this
I admit to being a Mad Cat Woman, in secret, but here is a man who has come out. He's a Mad Cat Man (a little known breed) and he admits it. This is the story of his life-long love for cats and how he currently lives at the beck and call of six of them, with his equally cat-loving wife.

It's a very funny, at times sad, always entertaining book about a man with an obsession. He explains how it started, and how he tried to control it: giving them up completely, and finding himself compulsively chatting up strange cats in the street, before finally giving in when he meets the girl of his dreams and a cat out of a nightmare. He writes about how all their different personalities emerge, and his attempts to understand and deal with them - The Bear: troubled sensitive artistic cat and Evil Genius; Ralph: Pretty Boy Rock Star cat suffering from depression. He explains how difficult it is to find a new house, deal with builders, work to pay for it all, when there are rather a lot of different opinions to take into account. Although he does know each cat's Catch Phrase and Theme Song, he is adamant that he knows they're not children and swears he would never refer to himself as their 'Dad'.

I would recommend this book to anyone, whether Mad Cat Person or ordinary animal lover - it's wryly funny, never over-sentimental and a very enjoyable read. It did make me want to rush out and get a few more cats, though, but maybe that's just me.

Funny & Fascinating Forray into the relationship between one man & his felines
It has to be said that I come from a family of cat lovers, I think that it must be something genetic because it doesn't matter what sex we are we all wear our love of cats on our sleeves (The numerous cat hairs & blobs or purry drool can attest to that.)

Anyone becoming a member of our family has had to cope with this inherent moggy love. My dad just sneezed his way through it. My previously mog resistant uncle found his affections swayed by a particularly grumpy black stray with an unhealthy taste for raw liver & my husband, who had only ever lived in a dog household, found himself seduced by a slightly barking but completely adorable little tabby girl & is now also hero worshipped by a very camp ginger & white moggy named after a deceased movie star. So it was my husband that actually picked up our copy of Tom Cox's excellent book chronicalling his journey through his personal cat history that has lead to him being owned by no less than six cats.

This wonderfully written tail (sic) bristles with humour & anecdotes that even a reader giving lodging to just one cat can identify & empathise with & provides a wonderful insight for the non-cat person into the appeal of these little, beguiling but oft misunderstood creatures. I found myself laughing out loud from the first chapter in found it hard to tear myself away from its pages, though my cats found that an outstretched set of claws dug into a fleshy bit had the desired effect when trying to get my attention. A great read guaranteed to soften the resolve of even the steeliest catophobe.

Gribbly bit-tastic
Is your cat a puss, a mog or a supervillain? Were you as proud as I was at your kittens' first mousetache? Are you unable to drive past a cat rehoming centre without feeling guilt for weeks afterwards and then having to go back to take on 3 new additions to the family? This is the book for you - absolutely brilliant - I didn't put it down once!