Sixty-three million cats are now pets in U.S. households, and the humans they live with know all too well that they have minds of their own and mysterious mental and communicative abilities that stagger the imagination.
In his new novel The Politicats Tennessean Tom Williams, a former newspaperman who has handled advertising and public relations in more than 50 political races (winning nearly 90 per cent of them) has created two shrewd felines who conspire to sabotage the presidential campaign of a conniving, villainous and extremely wealthy United States senator. Will they succeed?
Meet the feline protagonists of this hilarious and heartwarming political satire: One is Mr. Grover, a huge, elderly, battle-scarred former stray who is now the beloved friend of Gov. Seth Goodfellow. The other is Napoleon, an aristocratic red-orange longhair,whose human is talented young Washington newspaper reporter Stanley Blister, on leave from his job to handle media relations in the governor's campaign for his party's presidential nomination.
When the two cats discover that the governor's opponent, U.S. Senator Desmond Durth, was once a medical research doctor who collected stray cats -- including Mr. Grover -- for vivisection and other cruel and painful laboratory experiments, they decide that the nation as a whole, animals in general and cats in particular must be saved from having a monster such as this in the White House.
The story of how they send Durth's campaign down in flames and foil the senator's dirty tricks reflects political savvy an experienced spin doctor would envy. It is full of suspense, surprises and just plain hilarity, and leaves the reader smiling and well-satisfied.
The Politicats is funny, intelligent political satire, and author Williams has plenty to say through his delightfully outspoken cat characters about the absurdities of the American political system as well as of the human race.
This is a book for people who love and respect all animals and hope -- unrealistically, perhaps -- that one day there will be at least a few political officeholders who can also be loved and respected.
Williams began his career as a reporter and later an editorial writer for the Chattanooga, Tenn., News-Free Press. His articles, on many different subjects, have appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the nation.
He is also the author of Always Paddle Your Own Canoe, the widely acclaimed biography of eccentric businesswoman Anna Safley Houston, who accumulated the world's finest collection of antique glass and porcelain and founded Chattanooga's famed Houston Museum of Decorative Arts.
The author admits that for many years he has been owned by various cats, who have been valuable consultants in his research as to cat attitudes and capabilities.
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