Customer Reviews

Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Memoir

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Almost 40 here, 2 old fart felines- Chelsea (16) is diabetic with a number of itchy ailments, Shakespeare (17) has used the litter box about 3 times during his life- I've been cursed with the chore of rotating hand towels for his toilet leisure. And for the past 5 yrs or so, Chelsea has played kitty see - kitty do. Saves me a lot on the cost of litter, but I well make up for it with air deodorants and plug-ins as kitty urine smells 10x worse on a towel hung to dry while I wait for a full load to wash every 4-5 days.

A friend asked me if I'd heard about Stacy's book, I had not but quickly picked up a copy and waited a while to read it, dreading the ending chapter of course. Since I am home all the time, very emotionally in tune and attached to these two cats- having spent more time in their presence than with any other living creature during my life, when I did read the book, it was like reading my own story mixed with a close friend's story. This in 2002, at a point when my cats were rotating sick days, and I figured it wouldn't be long. Well we don't always rotate sick days now, being a diabetic now myself- sometimes we are all having a sick day on the same day, but we pull each other through.

If you are a cat lover, or ever taken care of a sick loved one, or in general a person with any kind of kindness and love in your heart, you will giggle, roll your eyes, tear up and break down- all within a few pages of each other even! Its a wonderful and touching book.

I'm a guy that 17 years ago never thought I'd be in such a boat with these two old friends. As I STILL wait to start a new life once these guys are gone, we snuggle up to bed and I never regret a second of it, no matter what or how much I had to clean up today, or how bad one of them is smelling at the moment! :) Friends that tell me its time to put them down, don't see how as sick as one is one day, they bounce back the next day and play like the mighty hunters they once were. It is going to be a little longer, at least.

Thank you Stacy!

2008 Update: My long-time buddies have been gone for almost a year now. I still miss them every single day, and treasure when they occasionally visit me in my dreams where they are healthy and vibrant again. I thank them for so many years of companionship and comfort, and I know one day I will be reunited with them somehow.

A word about the organization of the book. Most books have chapter titles or chapter numbers. Not "Waiting for My Cats to Die." Stacy Horn is a channel surfer who has a specific set of programming she adores (Buffy being one). Her book is organized much like this. She changes topics like channels--cats, death, fantasy, romance, polls, work--and occasionally introduces special programming--interviews. It was an interesting structure, and it fit the work.

I'm a thirty-something with a thirteen year old diabetic cat (thank goodness he doesn't have to compete for the title of 'best subcutaneous drip taking cat'). I stumbled across "Waiting for My Cats to Die" while looking for books about feline diabetes. I'm glad I did, despite mourning a cat I've never met.

I thought her tone was very engaging, and it was an excellent read. I loved how she taught herself to play drums in an area where she wouldn't bother anyone, and her descriptions of the little glories that life has to offer.

Buy it. Check it out of your library. Read the book, you'll be glad you did (but after you hit the middle, get a box of tissues at the ready).

"Waiting for my Cats to Die" Is a book you must read. It's about Stacy Horn. It's about Pamela Benton. It's about your friends. It's about you. It's about the human condition in the new century. It's about time you read it. "Waiting for my Cats to Die" is that book that only comes along every once in awhile, out of the blue, by an unknown author, and takes the world by surprize with it's charm, wit, intellegence, heartbreak and laughter. On the exterior, you see a excerpt from a middle-aged woman's life, dealing with her mid-life crisis. However, once you delve deeper into it's pages you see it's not just for aging women. The issues it deals with pertain to us all. Mortality. Living single. Losing loved ones. Fear. Friends. Wading through the shallow end of the dating pool. Career. Money. Love. Redemption. LIFE. "Waiting for my Cats to Die" will most certainly touch you, stir your soul, and make you examine your own life. It will make you feel better, live happier, and just maybe.. smile. It will probably change you, most certainly entertain you, and maybe make it all a litlle easier for awhile. You don't have to care about Stacy's life... although you will. You just need to read her book, and understand yourself a little more. No, it's not just a mid-life crisis book. It's not an avid reader's self-help book. It's just one great little piece of literature that's really effected me deeply. I'm not a book person, and I don't need to feel young again. I'm just a 24 year old whom ran across this page on Amazon and decided to take a chance. And you know what? I'm glad.

Stacy Horn is a 40-year-old New Yorker, strikingly aware that her life is almost over. In Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir, Ms. Horn writes of her own personal experiences, past and present, hoping to find some comfort in the fact that she is eventually going to die. "We've all read about how men act out their midlife crises over and over and over. Yeah, yeah. What do women do? This book will show you. I've started to act out in all sorts of ways. My pain will be your amusement." Yet this book isn't just for middle aged women. We can all learn from this book about love and hope. Loss and fear. Life and death.

The initial question most readers - including myself - ask is, "Why does she want her cats to die?" There is a severe misunderstanding here among cat-lovers of the world. Stacy adores her cats. She lives, breathes, and works for their very existence. Basically, her cats, Veets and Beams are all she has in the world. Once they die, then she can quit. Oddly enough, her felines are laden with medical problems. They are both diabetic, and Beams also has kidney disease. Stacy goes through extreme lengths to keep them alive, including insulin injections to them both, every twelve hours. I find this kind of love for a pet very endearing, and I admire Stacy for her immense dedication to them, even if it does seem a tad obsessive.

Speaking of obsessions, Stacy is obsessed with death. "I keep coming back to death the same way I can't stop touching a sore tooth with my tongue to see if it still hurts. Death. Still terrifying? Yes. How about now? Yes. And now? Yes. Death is at the heart of the midlife crisis." She goes to every death movie, reads every death book. She even went through the belongings of an eighty-eight year old woman who died, finding the most obscure things - a seventy-something-year-old appendix, for example. Small, short chapters on death are scattered sporadically throughout the book. Stacy visits abandoned cemeteries and funeral homes housing forgotten ashes. She wants to "unearth the unremembered...because if I can resurrect these abandoned histories, I win."

Meanwhile, when Stacy is actually living, runs a New-York-based internet company - Echo. She has been credited as one of the industry's first women to begin such a venture, and it has been around roughly ten years. She is constantly on the phone company's hit list, falling deep into debt, and desperately trying to sell Echo. In the end however, no sale transpires, and Stacy is still the owner. Taking numerous polls from her Echo users, she puts their statistics in the book. "Are you happy?," and "What do you miss the most from your youth?," being some questions that are asked.

Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir is such an insightful and interesting reflection, not just on the aspects of death, but life itself. It is THE reason why you are never to judge a book by its cover. What I enjoyed most about this book was how honest and straight-forward Stacy Horn was about all her thoughts, feelings, and dreams. "I find it comforting - and liberating - to admit that I don't know anything. Neither does anyone else." I found myself devouring each page numerous times, as if I could gain more information out of it after each read. Although she and I live completely different lives, I could connect, relate, and truly care about Stacy. This is not your average mid-life crisis, self-helper. Stacy Horn stirs your soul to revel in her own seemingly average life, urging you to enjoy your own small glory moments before it's too late.

Having two 19 year old cats of my own, I was hesitant to buy this book, due to severe guilt at empathizing with the title. As my cats' 20th birthday quickly approaches, and I'm having to deal with the thought of losing my roommates, I sucked it up & bought a copy. I am so glad I did.

This woman writes about her life in all its gory, mundane, hilarious detail. She is not model-pretty, with a line of men waiting to bed her, but she is real, funny, adventurous & loving and a bit hilariously obsessed with death

Anyone that lives with cats, especially aging ones, will not be able to stop laughing & crying as she writes about her devotion towards them & her guilt in regards to them.

If you don't live with or even like cats, buy it anyway, you'll be glad you did.

Well worth the read - I wish I had bought it when it had first come out, but I'm really glad I own it now. I will not be selling it, buy a new copy.

When I was approaching 30, a few years back, I was an emotional wreck. I was depressed that I was single with no prospective mate, I was scared of aging, I was terrified of losing my parents (who were in perfectly good health), terrified of my own health someday failing, etc. In a nutshell, I was scared to die. I kept thinking that if I live to be 90 years old, and my 30th birthday is near, then technically speaking I am starting the middle one-third of my life and therefore: I am Middle Aged. Yes, a weird thought, but mine. In an unrelated incident, I also have this cat, Fred, that I am absolutely in love with. Fred has some very special nicknames, like BuggyButt (don't ask), BellyBoy, Mushy, etc. I would think of losing him someday and, well let's just say when you hug a cat tight enough he can squeak. I saw Stacy on the Today show plugging her book and explaining how and why she came to research and write the book. Seeing that her and I shared some neuroses, I decided to buy the book. Very good choice. Self help comes in many forms, and is the most helpful when you are not seeking it. I was not expecting to find such a kindred spirit when I purchased this book. So many times during the reading, I found myself laughing through tears saying to myself, "I am not alone". If you are like me, it will be a quick read, front to back in less than a day, because you will not be able to put it down. Gracias Stacy Horn, I am on my third time reading it and still laughing through the tears.

While reading this book, I realized I am not the only aged 40+ woman, living with older cats and somewhat obsessed with death - both mine and my cats. It's not as dismal as it sounds - in fact, I laughed at loud more with this book than with any other in recent memory.

Her description of her cats diabetes and the daily testing that involved had me laughing (and crying) so hard I had trouble catching my breath.

For anyone with slightly older cats (mine are 19 years old) this is a must read.

MaggieF

Laughed out loud. Then had to explain why I was laughing. Answered by giving the title of the book. Oh, the looks I received!

On a more serious note, my thirteen-year-old cat that I loved beyond measure had just died. The book helped. Although, quoting from it, one thing is still true: "I want my cat back."

This is a fantastic "memoir", which actually reads more like an biographically-based, free-form essay on various topics with mortality, aloneness, and a sense of time passing one by as a central theme. But don't feel sorry for the author- she addresses these issues with wit, humor, and insight. Within the first few pages you get the sense that you are in the presence of a much livelier, quicker, and funnier mind than your own- or in fact than any "talking head" pundit or comedian I can think of. Reading this book is truly like having an intimate conversation with a trusted friend and I could not put this book down. Humorous as Bridget Jones, insightful as Melissa Banks, and with a unique voice all of her own, this is one of the best books I have ever read and I highly recommend it to everyone, single or married, male or female. I am amazed this book has not gotten more press- its one of the best books of the past year and truly unique.

I stumbled across this book by accident. I laughed, I cried, and I learned the meaning of life and death, all from this strange book with its compellingly weird title. It was as though Stacy Horn peered inside my soul, found my secrets, exposed them, and set them free. I don't feel quite as alone in my eccentricities as I did before. Now I'm waiting for her next book - and the tv series.