My former editor Emily Loose and I thought up the idea for this book together, and we had begun to sketch out a proposal for it when the parent company of the Free Press pulled not just the rug but the whole floor out from under Emily and our whole team there. One day the Free Press existed, and the next day it didn’t. I guess that’s publishing today.
It took me I don’t remember how many drafts to finish a proposal that satisfied my agent, David McCormick, a relentless perfectionist. “More science, Tom,” he kept saying, “less of you and that cat.” My admiration and affection for David remain nonetheless boundless.
I’m grateful, too, to Mauro DiPreta and Stacy Creamer of Hachette for going for said proposal. Stacy said, “I love the stories about you and Augusta, Tom. Can we have more of those?” Great new editor! Loved cats! We were totally in tune on this book. Then she got a job somewhere else. Publishing today.
After a scary hiatus, during which I begged Mauro please not to hire a cat hater, Michelle Howry arrived, and for the third time—and believe me, luck like this is almost unknown in publishing—I had an editor who simply had everything a writer could want: skill, brains, super-literacy, plus a mysterious way of knowing what I was trying to say when I couldn’t quite say it myself.
Now the rest of the Hachette tribe have been emerging, and what an excellent outfit they are. Lauren Hummel can apparently juggle any number of flaming objects. Hallie Patterson is a marketing wiz. Michelle Aielli conducts the orchestra. Mauro DiPreta seems to do everything.
I want to single out two researchers for particular thanks. The findings of Eileen Karsh illuminate the crucial stages of development in very young kittens with a degree of precision that can make an immense difference in the lives of both cats and their owners. Eugenia Natoli’s studies of feral cats in Rome, and of the challenges that feral cat colonies present, bring subtlety and wisdom to issues too often oversimplified.
And, as ever, to the best editor of all, my wife, Elizabeth, gratitude beyond expression.