Cat Book :Journey Home: A Cat's Tale by Russell H. Plante

"All the things that happen to us,

are important in making us who we are."

   When I was approached by author Russell H. Plante asking if I would review his book Journey Home: A Cat's Tale, after hearing the premise I was intrigued. There were things that reminded me of my Angel Bobo whom I had rescued huddling beneath a car in a driving blizzard,  shivering and cold. I had seen him earlier that day, watching as he scaled a 6 ft chain link fence in the bitter cold. My ex and I were leaving to go away and couldn't take him then. When we returned 6 hours later I went to check to see if he was sitting under the car we saw him run to after scaling the fence and sure enough he was there. The rest is history. After a search for his previous owners that provided nothing, Bobo remained with me for 18 years. I always wondered what his story was, and what his life was like in the 6 months he was alive before he found me. I knew I had to read this book. Parts of this thought-provoking and heart-warming story are true.

An Excerpt: "It's freezing cold and the bitter wind precipitates a chill factor well below zero. My whiskers are like frozen icicles, plastered against my face....a deep voice from within my past whispers quietly to me-reminding me....Survive."

"This is a story based upon the actual life of a cat found abandoned in a dumpster, left to die, with his leg caught in a trap. Born in a small town on the coast of Maine, an unpretentious cat named 'Patches' encounters life changing experiences during his first two years. His siblings are given away, his father abandons him and his mother without explanation, and he's discarded by an uncaring owner and left homeless without food or shelter. As he wanders the streets to piece his life back together, he discovers new friends like Chester, a relocated cat from New York City, who helps him to find food and shelter:

Chester taught me just about everything he could think of in order to help me survive and deal with my new environment. He taught me how to observe the things around me, how to fight if I needed to, how to understand myself better by putting myself in the place of others and treating them as I would want to be treated, and how to be a good and decent cat."

The dialogue between Patches and his friends is often funny. I appreciated reading dialogue from a cat that was spoken in the way I imagine that cats would speak, INTELLIGENTLY, not in a baby talk sort of a way that is often attributed to cats. In my opinion if a cat could speak in the way humans speak, a cat would speak intelligently and sure wouldn't be speaking babytalk....but I digress. The dialogue is often deeply philosophic and inspiring. Inspiring us to think about how all that has happened in OUR lives has shaped us into who we are today. 

     "This is a story about Patches’ journey from homelessness to finding a new life. It’s a story about losing his sisters and finding them once again and his experiences as he acquires friends, starting from the sad reality of his abandonment on a late September afternoon and continuing into the bleak months of fall and winter in New England.  His journey defines who he becomes as he learns to survive. The realities of life he experiences translate into many lessons from which we all can learn."

One lesson is that when we lose a friend we shouldn't think of it as a loss per se, Patches learned that " even though friends leave, you don't really lose them, they are always there, within you. Even though you may not see them as often, you always have the memories of your experiences with them. That's something you can always cherish."

 Journey Home "is a novel that encourages hope and connects us with each other in order to help us see the complexities faced by others. It is a story of hope, a sense of helplessness and despair, the loss of innocence, and conviction – never giving up, no matter the circumstance.  It imparts an insight to appreciate the meaning of friendship, to always move forward, and to evaluate situations before passing judgement."

"Each of us encounters obstacles during our lives, some more than others. There is uncertainty in everyone's life. Mine is no exception. I am who I am today because of both the good and bad things that have happened in my life. I guess we all have a better understanding of our lives as we age. I don't profess to know all of the answers, not even as I become more aware of life as I get older. But you must persist and give life a chance to work itself out."

If you are looking for a thought-provoking, touching, deeply sensitive and philosophical read that will draw you in and not release you until the very last page, I urge you to add this deeply touching book to your ever-growing cat library. It is simply beautiful. I had a few tears at the end (happy tears), I also had a few chills. I smiled, I cried, but most of all I was happy that I jumped on the opportunity to read this most beautiful story. It is my wish that you will do the same! 

Purchase  on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
 Also, on the author's  website at www.russellhplante.com.
Facebook:www.facebook.com/russellhplante


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Russell Plante is an Engineering Physicist with a diverse engineering and academic background in Engineering Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Business Administration.  He has held positions as a systems engineer with Automation Industries, Inc., a project engineer in Kalwall Corp's Solar Division, and Department of Defense Branch Head in Control Engineering, Welding Engineering, and Quality Control Engineering Analysis.  While at the DOD, he was appointed by the University of Maine to advise and assist the Physics Department in providing an industrial perspective for quality education.  A skilled technical writer, he is a previously published author and has received awards for Solar Building Engineering Design from the State of Maine Office of Energy Resources and from the U.S. Department of Energy for Energy Innovation Technologies.