So Tiberius

The author insists that this is not a story for "cat-lovers," but for "those who admire and respect the essential animal characteristics of this most beautiful, interesting and fundamentally wild creature." It is the story of a little female cat named by her owner, John Ainsworth, newspaper man, "Lucia." She is sentenced to death when he takes her--not particularly wanting her but because it seems a pity for the young and beautiful to die. The cat and the man learn to adjust themselves to each other, on a basis of mutual toleration. The man develops an affection for the beautiful, indifferent creature in his care, but he does not deceive himself that the cat "loves" him. She leads her own animal life in her private jungle. He leads his in the jungle of civilization. On the whole, he concludes, the cat makes a better job of living. The man's story and the cat's run parallel in many ways, and in the end it is the cat who "liberates" the man. This is a cat story with a difference. The author never at any point sentimentalizes the relationship of the man and the animal. We believe, therefore, that thought it may be disliked, perhaps, by "cat-lovers" it will be found true and moving by those who like cats. It was written as a result of close and continuous observation of the author's own cat, and is based on incidents in her life.