“The Good Luck Cat” by Lissa Warren; c.2014, Lyons Press; $21.95 / $23.95 Canada; 245 pages

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

It was admittedly all your fault.

Your team almost lost a game because you weren’t wearing your lucky socks. Everybody knows that stuff matters and you didn’t do laundry that week. You remembered it at the beginning of the game, though, and fortunately, you had your lucky hat nearby. Score!

We all have our talismans, but where does that luck come from? In the new book “The Good Luck Cat” by Lissa Warren, fortuitousness moves both ways.

When Lissa Warren and her parents lost their elderly Burmese cat to kidney failure, they were understandably devastated. They’d had Cinnamon since Warren was five years old. The cat was family.

Eager to fill their home and hearts again, Warren began researching new options. They loved the Burmese breed but, says Warren , there was “simply no way” they could bear to have another right away. Eventually, they settled on a Korat and, in short order, brought home Ting-Pei.

Terri Schlichenmeyer

Sleek dolphin-colored and just a few pounds in weight, Ting had “royal bloodlines.” She was a typical curious kitten with mischief on her mind, and the Warrens fell in love with her almost immediately. She seemed to love them, too, but Warren ’s father was her favorite human.

He was a man of “few rules” but the ones he “did have did not extend to Ting.” Playing with the cat was his favorite pastime – more so, when his health declined and he became bedridden. Ting loved to climb, Warren ’s father loved to watch her climb and seeing her up high pleased him, so Warren and her mother created an elaborate tower of furniture to make them both happy.

Over the years, the family “marked… time by the cat.” Ting was their entertainment, their partner, conversation-starter, and their focus. They accommodated her preferences by both cat-proofing and cat-enhancing their home. She was their solace when Warren ’s father died and, when depression descended, she was often Warren ’s reason to keep going. They fretted over Ting’s health issues and tenderly cared for her when she became ill. And when Warren received an unfortunate diagnosis of her own, her cat was there for comfort…

In looking at the cover of this book, one might conclude that it’s merely a story about one cat and one family. But that would be wrong: “The Good Luck Cat” is about lots of felines – and more.

Mixed in with the story of Ting (a memoir of cat that includes memoir of author), Lissa Warren cogitates on cats in general and her own kitty in particular. She muses about art and literature, artists, writers, and their four-legged muses and she weaves in history and health information for both species. That gives this book nice flow – it’s not hard to read – and its gentle humor is purrfect.

Sink your claws in this book if you’re a fan of felines.

Get (cat)food for thought if you’re interested in the relationship between animals and healing. Or start “The Good Luck Cat” if you want a smart read, and good luck accomplishing anything else.