Written and Illustrated by Katherine Burger

Katherine Burger, playwright and artist, has loved many cats in her life - but one cat will forever be special in her memory: Bobcat, who as a kitten from a farm in Vermont climbed determinedly up her pants leg and fell asleep on her lap.

Katherine took Bob with her to New York City, where she was the child wrangler for the Metropolitan Opera House; and then each summer for many years to Woodstock, NY, where she was the Director of the Artist Residency Program at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony. Bob roamed freely across the colony during the day and sometimes ventured into the deep woods at night. His many adventures, both real and imagined, inspired the fictional autobiography you hold in your hands: the coming-of-age story of a sometimes too curious young cat, torn between household bliss & the deeper, more dangerous allure of instinct.

As Bob himself puts it, in beginning his story: “When young we are pure id. As we grow older we gain, in varying degrees, wisdom, reason, empathy for others. Yet the dark unconscious floats unseen beneath the calm waters of our seeming selves, honing its teeth and flexing its thick antediluvian limbs. I will not prevail upon your patience any longer with metaphysical metaphors, but will commence forthwith the story of my formative early life - my bildungsroman, if you will.”

Embedded with sly literary allusions and illustrated by the author’s drawings and collages, this book will charm cat lovers and book lovers alike.

“This was a delightful read! The author captures the perspective of a housecat and explores his wild side in a way that feels fresh and new, and shows how we’re not that different from our cats. It’s a really lovely piece of empathic writing, and I love the humor in the illustrations.”

- Molly Knox Ostertag, author of the Witch Boy series

“A warm and canny memoir from the pen of Mr. Bob, a literary cat who tosses off allusions to Freud’s Id and the prose rhythms of Charles Dickens. The play of feline wit and wisdom is brilliantly matched by Katherine Burger’s illustrations.”

- Nick Lyons, founder of Lyons Press and author of the memoir, Fire in the Straw