"Cat Daddy: What the World's Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean" by Jackson Galaxy

I first saw Jackson Galaxy on his Animal Planet show "My Cat From Hell."  He goes into homes where there are feline problems and fixes them through positive reinforcement and empathy for the cats.  (Usually, it is the humans who are causing the problems but the felines who act out and get the blame.)  At the beginning of each episode, he says that he plays music, and that's basically all that I knew about him before listening to this memoir/cat advice book.  Galaxy has a lot of baggage and discloses it with candor and passion.  He was addicted to drugs, alcohol, and food, and has had a nervous breakdown as well as gastric bypass surgery.  He got his start working with cats at an animal shelter in Boulder, CO, and became fascinated with the way the cats closed in on themselves as opposed to the outgoing vivaciousness of the homeless dogs.  He readily admits that he has no formal training or education in animal science or behavior yet he does have an innate ability to empathize with cats and find solutions to their problems, as I have seen on his show.  We are introduced to his feline soul mate of 13 years, Benny, a petite beauty dropped off at the shelter with a broken pelvis.  Galaxy takes him in and cares for him until he passes away, which was very sad to hear.  Galaxy also gives lots of advice to cat parents for dealing with specific issues and even teaches us how to say "I love you" in a way our felines will understand.  Some parts of the book were difficult to listen to, particularly when he has to euthanize the animals at the shelter, and there were plenty of curse words included.  He has an MFA in acting, so he really does a great job narrating the book with lots of intensity and emotion.  Highly recommended to cat parents and cat lovers in general.

Audio:  6.5 hours
Print:  320 pages

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

Author:David Sheff
Pages: 336



What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3 A.M. phone calls (is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the rehabs. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic.