"A practical, down-to-earth guide...Well organized and easy to read and to understand." CAT FANCY World-renowed pet behaviorist Warren Eckstein shows you how to walk with your cat, make it come when called, play for hours without ruining your plants and furniture, and more, in this warm, readable guide for feline lovers everywhere. Here are on-the-mark observations, wonderful insights, and step-by-step advice for: Alleviating kitty stress and nervousness; Coping with feline old age; Exercising your beloved mouser, and much more. Plus: diet, grooming, and dentistry tips. "A practical, down-to-earth guide...Well organized and easy to read and to understand." CAT FANCY World-renowed pet behaviorist Warren Eckstein shows you how to walk with your cat, make it come when called, play for hours without ruining your plants and furniture, and more, in this warm, readable guide for feline lovers everywhere. Here are on-the-mark observations, wonderful insights, and step-by-step advice for: Alleviating kitty stress and nervousness; Coping with feline old age; Exercising your beloved mouser, and much more. Plus: diet, grooming, and dentistry tips. From the Paperback edition. tical, down-to-earth guide...Well organized and easy to read and to understand." CAT FANCY World-renowed pet behaviorist Warren Eckstein shows you how to walk with your cat, make it come when called, play for hours without ruining your plants and furniture, and more, in this warm, readable guide for feline lovers everywhere. Here are on-the-mark observations, wonderful insights, and step-by-step advice for: Alleviating kitty stress and nervousness; Coping with feline old age; Exercising your beloved mouser, and much more. Plus: diet, grooming, and dentistry tips. From the Paperback edition. Warren Eckstein  is a noted pet psychologist and has worked with the animals of such celebrities as David Letterman, Cheryl Tiegs, and Lily Tomlin. He has his own nationally syndicated radio show telling owners how to best treat their pets. Warren and his co-author and wife, Andrea Eckstein, live on Long Island, New York, with their dogs, cats, pigs, and birds. Fay Eckstein was the co-author, with her husband, Warren Eckstein, of How to Get Your Cat to Do What You Want and other books on pet behavior. She and Warren worked with pets and their owners for more than twenty years. Fay died in 1990. INTRODUCTION   To own a cat is to understand the concept of living with a being of higher intelligence. Not amused by telephones, bills, and the mundaneness of everyday life, cats spend their entire day deciding on ways to improve their living conditions.   People don’t choose cats, cats choose the people with whom they wish to live. When I hear someone say, “I hate cats,” I don’t frown or view them with disdain. I simply recognize that they haven’t had the opportunity to be accepted and owned by a cat.   And how do you know when you’ve been picked to be owned by a cat? That’s easy. He tells you.   My cat Mowdy certainly did. In fact, Mowdy added a new dimension to the art of conversation. He showed me that a little simple conversation wasn’t enough. You see, cats have the capacity for well-thought-out discussions (and actions)—they just pick and choose on whom they want to use it. They outsmart us all the time.   Because I appear frequently on television and radio, manufacturers constantly send me the latest toys and gourmet foods for pets, hoping that after I try them out on my four-legged menagerie, I might mention them during one of my media appearances. So even though Mowdy had thirty thousand other people in my town to choose from, he knew that moving into my house was like moving into Kitty Disney World.   And that’s what he decided to do—move in. One day, popping up out of nowhere, Mowdy simply strolled into my life. Well, he didn’t actually stroll in—what he did was fuss and scream, so much so that he didn’t give me much of a chance to decline his decision to relocate. I have an office in my house and Mowdy, who was unnamed and homeless at the time, positioned himself ever so cleverly atop my neighbor’s car—which has a bird’s-eye view through my office window—putting him in the perfect place to stare me down while I was on the phone. Mowdy looked me square in the eyes and started meowing. Not just any type of meow, mind you—but short ones, long ones, and many of different octave ranges. I’m sure some of his vocalizations were clearly audible to the entire neighborhood—if not the entire eastern seaboard. It was clear that Mowdy was carrying on a full-length conversation with me. I could hear it in his voice, and I could certainly see it on his face.   I’m embarrassed to say that I did not take Mowdy too seriously. I was already the proud owner of too many pets. As a matter of fact, I had recently gone into debt to buy a second home, a farm in upstate New York, not for me but for my pets; my animals needed a country home. There’s only