Non-Cat Lovers Might Just Want to Stop Here

Homer's Odyssey, by Gwen Cooper


So this is what happens when I go into Borders to "buy Doubt for film class." Before I even get near the DVD section, my eye is caught by the bait; a big red sign that says "BUY ONE, GET 50% OFF THE OTHER!" Such signs were made for suckers like me, and I am further seduced by this cover:



Come on, what am I - made of stone?


After doing my usual ritual when buying a book about an animal - flipping to the end to be sure the cat doesn't die (the cat doesn't die) - I rapidly picked up my second book, Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline, and proceeded to the checkout. Oh, yeah, I did remember to buy Doubt.

Author Cooper was an early-20s, non-profit do-gooder, crashing with a friend in South Beach when Homer came into her life.  Her vet called her about a kitten she'd found whose eyes were so severely infected that she had to remove them, but whose sweet and fun-loving spirit was undiminished by sightlessness. When Cooper met Homer, she found (much as I did when faced with the cover) that resistance was futile.

While the memoir is partially about Homer's blindness, it is more about his utter cat-ness; having been blinded when only a few days old, he doesn't realize he's different.  The difference is more in Cooper's, and the people she meets, perception of him.  He is remarkable by any standards (he once scared away a would-be burglar/rapist) and Cooper's writing suggests that it is because of, not in spite of, his "disability."

In other words - fun, funny, heartwarming and sometimes heart-twisting (I was somewhat traumatized when Cooper wrote about being separated from her cats on 9/11 and not being able to get back to them in her downtown apartment for three days - it was totally a "there for the grace of God" feeling) and anyone with a heart and a scrap of pro-feline sentiment will fall for Homer, his owner, and his cat-step-siblings.

I was further charmed by the fact that Gwen Cooper is donating 10% of all her domestic royalties to organizations that benefit abused, abandoned, and disabled animals.  Go, Gwen!  And not only is Homer alive and well, you can friend him on Facebook. (Well, of course I did. Duh.)