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There are plenty of entertaining stories written about the public mishaps and accomplishments of dogs; they are social animals and can play highly public roles in everything from television sitcoms to real-life emergency situations. The cat, as feline admirers will not hesitate to agree, is more select in its level of tolerance for lowly humans, and thus few true stories are told that revolve around cats in public life. And then there's Henrietta.

Christopher Wren belonged to Henrietta the cat, and Christopher Wren travels far and wide in his work as a foreign news correspondent. Of course Henrietta insisted on being brought along to Moscow, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, and all the other cities the Wrens visited. And of course Henrietta got into all sorts of scrapes--cats can cause enough trouble right in their own living rooms! The Cat Who Covered the World is a tremendously entertaining memoir and travelogue, covering 17 years in the life of a busy cat and her accommodating family. Wherever she went, she charmed, and tales of flight attendants bestowing free portions of salmon mousse and Italian taxi drivers blowing kisses into her cage while ignoring the traffic are intertwined with more typical cat stories of sudden escapes into fields, food stealing, and incessant yowling at inappropriate times. For this book, Wren sets aside his investigations and simply enjoys, culling quotes about cats from Mark Twain, Christopher Smart, Deng Xiaoping, and Herodotus for a bit of added depth. His conclusion about the cat/journalist relationship will have all feline fanciers smiling in agreement: "I have met enough celebrity journalists whose smug self-importance might have been ameliorated or corrected altogether by the ownership of a couple of cats." --Jill Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
New York Times editor Wren (Hacks) spins a cutesy tale of his 18 years as a foreign correspondent, which he shared with his cat, Henrietta (as well as wife Jacqueline and children Celia and Chris). A month-old ball of gray fluff delivered by a fellow newswoman on Christmas Eve (with a bottle of Scotch to secure the deal), Henrietta became a full-fledged member of this globe-trotting family, following the author to his posts (Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, New York and Johannesburg, with stopovers and vacations in Italy, Japan and Vermont), winning hearts on airplanes and in hotels, cadging snacks from shopkeepers and diplomats. On board for Anwar Sadat's famous pact with Israel, the slow crumbling of the Soviet Union and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, the eight-pound New York tabby has witnessed international dramas few humans have. But for all her frequent flier miles, Henrietta's actual exploits differ little from the average house cat'sAthey just occur against exotic backdrops. For instance, when Henrietta shows her affection to an official houseguest by delivering a dead mouse (the feline version of passing the hors d'oeuvres), she makes her presentation to the Pakistani ambassador. When she finally died at the ripe old age of 18Awell past 90 in human yearsAit was after being stalked by ibises in Johannesburg. Sometimes amusing and sweet but mostly slight, Wren's book is purely for extreme cat devot?es. Others will find it as cloying as a hairball. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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First Sentence:
The cat arrived with a bottle of Scotch. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
baggage master, foreign desk, yellow fish, foreign editor Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, South Africa, United States, Soviet Union, Middle East, Beijing Hotel, Communist Party, Central Market, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Okura Hotel, North America, Peanut Butter, San Stefano, British Airways, Mao Zedong Thought, New Year's Eve, North Pole, Tamara Mikhailovna New!
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