The cat has purred its way into the hearts of many a New Zealander, and into the pages of this country's writers. Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, James K. Baxter and Frank Sargeson all wrote about cats, and here many current writers - from Fiona Kidman to Sarah Quigley, Brian Turner to Kevin Ireland - celebrate their feline friends in articles, poetry and short stories. Peter Wells has collected an entertaining mix of this terrific writing, introducing us to such cats as the white Manx, Small, who 'saved' Shonagh Koea; Martin Edmond's stray loner, Monkey, with her 'quack hello'; Ursula Bethell's cat Michael, who is 'at once enemy/and the chief ornament of our garden'; and Owen Marshall's fictional Bagheera with his 'disconcerting smell of life and muscle'. Contributors: James K. Baxter, Ursula Bethell, Peter Bland, Bernard Brown, Diane Brown, Janet Charman, Martin Edmond, Barbara Else, Fiona Farrell, Beryl Fletcher, Janet Frame, Paula Green, Kevin Ireland, Stephanie Johnson, Jan Kemp, Shonagh Koea, Gary Langford, Graeme Lay, Margaret Mahy, Katherine Mansfield, Jeffrey Masson, Owen Marshall, Emma Neale, W. H.Oliver, Vincent O'Sullivan, Vivienne Plumb, Sarah Quigley, Frank Sargeson, Elizbeth Smither, C. K. Stead, Philip Temple, Brian Turner, Hone Tuwhare, Peter Wells, Douglas Wright.