Customer Reviews

Kittens For Dummies

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I volunteered to foster a couple of kittens for a local rescue group last year and ended up taking care of a total of 13 over about 6 months. It was challenging but very rewarding and as a thank you gift, the rescue group coordinator gave me a copy of "Kittens for Dummies" for Christmas...boy do I wish I had known about the book earlier. It answered all the questions I agonized about during that 6 months... and I had lived on farm and been around lots of baby animals for a good part of my life! Kittens for Dummies is easy to read, the information is current, useful and well-organized, and as with all the Dummies books, it uses lots of humor! I HIGHLY recommend the book even if you have had a cat for years and think you know all about cat care... you will learn something new from this book. If you are like me, innocently agreeing to help out in a worthwhile cause (kitten rescue) without a clue about many of the problems that can arrive with those cute motherless kittens... you really NEED this book. It will answer questions you haven't even asked yourself until it is 3 o'clock in the a.m. and you have a tiny kitten showing symptoms of something scary. I wish I had the resources to send a copy of it with every cat and kitten that is adopted to a new loving home!

If you have ever found an orphaned kitten and experienced that instance of uncertainty, where you stomach lurches and your brain scrambles for the answer to "What do I do now?" Then, this book was written just for you.

An expert in the field of orphaned kitten care, Dusty Rainbolt offers her substantial field of knowledge directly to you. Written in an easy to understand style and surrounded by stunning photographs by her husband Weems, this book covers all apects of the care of orphans. A remarkable navigational tool that will carry you safely through the job of rearing a healthy kitten, or caring for an orphaned litter, this is the type of book to enhance any cat lover's library.

Even veterans in cat rescue are likely to find that Dusty Rainbolt's presentation and knowledge will assist them and this book will become a powerful resource tool for them. My suggestion is buy this now before Kitten Season strikes, because once it does, this puppy will be sold out!

I am a cat owner and experienced kitten carer - caring for orphaned, abandoned, feral and premature kittens. I am always looking to expand my knowledge and learn more about caring for these little ones, as well as kittens in general. Once 'Kittens for Dummies' arrived at my home, I read it from cover to cover and was very impressed. This book is informative, easy to read and peppered in parts with a little humour, something I found quite refreshing.

Whether you're caring for an orphaned or abandoned kitten or older kitten, Kitten for Dummies will guide you through all the aspects of having a kitten. Why does he climb my curtains? Why does he wake me up at 5am by batting at my eyes? How does a kitten purr? How do I know if my kitten is ill? You'll find answers to these and many more questions you may have about your kitten in Kittens for Dummies.

If you have a kitten or kittens in your life, this book is a must. If kittens came with an instruction manual, Kittens for Dummies would be it.

Having lost my beloved feline companion of 17 years, I was determined to seek out another kitty with similar genetic and personality traits. Not having had the experience of raising a kitten for so many years, I went shopping for a book that would get me up to speed on all the latest in happy-kitty raising. I selected Kittens for Dummies as appearing to be the best of the books available to me at first hand.

I wasn't disappointed. The book is easy to use (great if you have a screaming 7-week-old at your feet and you want an answer fast), clearly organized and charmingly written. I gobbled it down in short order and took it with me when I went kitten shopping and at every step of the shopping-for-kitty experience.

Kittens for Dummies seems to me to contain more useful information between its covers than most of the other books I researched. It wastes no time on empty fluff; its pages are packed with tips and practical advice. It should satisfy the needs of first-time kitten owners and old hands looking to brush up alike. I especially liked the brand-name items that Ms. Rainbolt suggests. They take the guesswork out of hunting for safe, high quality items for your kitten.

The only chapter I had disagreements with was the chapter on diet, as I am a firm believer in the raw food diet for cats, but that's another book review!

Overall, if you can only afford one book on kitten care, Kittens for Dummies would be an excellent choice.

I do a lot of rescue work and it's been my experience that many people who want a kitten don't understand how much work kittens are. Admittedly,I was one of those people when I adopted my first kitten and I wish I'd had this as a resource back then. This book tells you everything you need to know about getting a kitten and raising it to be a great furry family member. It even covers breed rescue, which most people don't even know exists. After reading this book you'll either decide that a kitten isn't for you or you'll be one of the greatest kitten owners around!

One thing I like about the "for Dummies" format is their layout which makes information easy to find and quick to digest. In "Kittens for Dummies," the author, whose name I recognized from numerous cat articles in magazines like "Cat Fancy", writes from twenty years of experience in rescuing orphaned kittens. She gives a fair, two-sided argument (pros and cons both) about buying pedigreed kittens and dealing with reputable breeders. In particular, the sections on behavior problems and health issues were useful and up to date. Like other "for Dummies" books, the author filtered in plenty of humor. As a teacher, I've always found that humor helps make information easier to learn and remember. While the book doesn't contain information regarding obscure illnesses--by being obscure the disease isn't a likely event. That's what veterinarians are for besides. <g> Overal, I found the book to be a useful, enjoyable, and easy to read guide. A definite must for first time kitten owners.

I came to kitten "bottle babies" quite by accident and in something of a panic...four little lives I was suddently responsible for...then I discovered Dusty and Weems and the planet righted itself on its axis! Dusty is the most patient of coaches, whether in person or through this amazing text...her sense of humor and common-kitten-sense were a blessing in my many moments of need..nothing was too silly to ask and every kitten precious, just the tone she has brought to Kittens for Dummies...add Weems to the team with his natural kitten touch, patience and eye for a picture and as far as I'm concerned, you just can't top them. My copy of the book is cat-eared, tear-stained, formula (and other) spotted and I wouldn't trade it for a pot of gold...thanks to both Dusty and Weems for the time and heart the publication reflects...it has literally saved lives!

Being involved in rescue, I find this book to be an invaluable resource. Sometimes I use it like an encyclopedia and look up information that I don't know or might have forgotten. I've also referred countless people to this book when they've adopted a kitten. Kittens are cute and people are drawn to them but most find that they're not as easy to care for as they'd thought. "For Dummies"? Maybe. But also for people who are smart enough to know they need help. If kittens came with an owner's manual, this book would be it.

Kittens for Dummies is quite simply one of the best books I've ever read. I'm glad I didn't get a copy from the library because the overdue fines would have bankrupted me!!!

Growing up, my mom was a breeder and I've had cats ever since. About 1.5 yrs ago,my son decided that he wanted a dog or cat that would be 'his' and sleep upstairs with him. We were at Petsmart and there was an adoption event. He saw a 7 mos old black kiten named Scamp. He wanted to take him home immediately, but had to talk to Daddy, who at 43 and never having an indoor pet had graciously allowed the adoption of a cat and a rather large dog. He agreed and during the week that we waited to adopt Scamp, I went looking for a book that would explain to my son all about kittens and what kinds of things they needed. I found very few children's books that covered the kinds of info I wanted. On the shelf next to it was Kittens For Dummies. It had all kinds of information in it, and happened to have a sticker on the front that said "Autographed Copy". I thought that was neat and that it had been so long since I'd had kittens that it wouldn't hurt for me to brush up on my own kitten care knowledge. I read the book cover to cover, like a novel. I couldn't put it down. For the interesting, pertinent and especially funny parts, I read it aloud to my husband and son while we drove from place to place that week. I suspect they had most of the book read to them. When I got to the part about orphan kittens, I was very interested. I had only one child, and we could not have any more. The thought came that maybe I could use some of the 'baby crazies' to take care of baby cats that didn't have mothers and more. I talked to my husband and to the people at the rescue group when we picked up Scamp, and while they said they didn't get a lot of bottle babies, they didn't have many people that could care for them and they would definitely call me. They called a week later. I got a box with a couple of towels, a bottle, a brush, an can of formula and I was a new mom! THANK GOD for Dusty's book. That kitten had a number of problems, but I was prepared for almost every single one, thanks to the book. I learned the signs to watch for when he would get sick, times he needed medicine or special care, how to determine what age he was, and what milestones he would or should have reached. Since then, I've been a foster mom to many more kittens. I catapulted from 'newbie foster parent' to 'expert kitten foster'. When the group had a kitten that a lot of supervision or that was very medically fragile they brought them to me. I had a lot of help from the more experienced rescuers in our group and from friends online, but more often than not, they reminded me of something I'd read in Kittens for Dummies. I had the privilege of meeting Dusty and Weems, and found out something really neat about the book -- All of the pictures except the show kitties and the one on the cover are ALL orphan kittens raised in their home. That's a LOT of happy and healthy kittens!! The book has something for everyone that has or will have a kitten or cat in their life. A lot of the information I've used for full-grown cats as well as kittens - because the information is so thoroughly presented. I have places that the book will fall open to on it's own because it's been in that place so many times -- I use the age chart often to try to figure out what age a kitten that has been brought to me might be. A normal, healthy, indoor kitten can be estimated by weight, but in rescue, very rarely are the kittens we get normal, healthy indoor kittens until we help them become that. Rescue can be hard work - especially when you lose one of the kittens. Dusty even covers that possibility in her book. That's not something we all want to think about, but it's an important thing to consider, since everyone experiences the death of a pet differerntly. Having lost my own cat of 10 years recently, I ever found myself popping my book open, once again, to check out the web address for petloss.com. I hope if you have or are going to get a kitten (or a cat) that you will get this book. I don't know what I would have done without it!

As both a rescuer and a breeder, I have found this book to be an easy-to-read and indispensable guide for fosterers and owners of kittens - so much so that I have started giving a copy of this book to all of my kitten buyers when they come to pick up their new baby! I have gotten much positive feedback from my kitten buyers, who have said that the book has been especially helpful to them in introducing their kitten to its new home, and in understanding the needs of their new family member. But this book is especially valuable to fosterers who have to take the place of a four-footed mom in raising at-risk orphans, and I am certain that this book's information on raising orphaned kittens has helped to save many a newborn life.