Puss Reboots: Blog: March 2008: The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D

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Book Reviews:

Bleach Volume 9 by Tite Kubo.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Marakami.
The Boarder by Alexander Jablokov.
Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry.
Count to Ten Piggy Wiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox.
Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man by Tim Allen.
Exit Strategy by K. D. Wentworth
Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward.
The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D by Marilyn Sachs.
Flush by Carl Hiaasen.
Frogs by Martin Schwabacher.
He Rents, She Rents by Richard Roeper and Laura Viera.
Hotel Cat by Esther Averill
Immortal by Traci L. Slatton.
The Ka of Gifford Hillary by Dennis Wheatley.
Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes.
Leadership Brand by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
Lorna Doone (Abridged) by R. D. Blackmore
Lost Pilgrim by Gene Wolf.
The Magnificent Mummy Maker by Elvira Woodruff.
Manhattan is Missing by E. W. Hildick.
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes.
Mommy Hugs by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
The Overseer by Albert E. Cowdrey.
Park by Pierre Pratt
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association by Loren D. Estleman
Rumple What? by Nancy Springer
Sea Turtles by Emilie U. Lepthien.
The Second Descent by Richard Paul Russo.
Stanley in Space by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Scott Nash.
Take a Stand, Rosa Parks! by Peter and Connie Roop.
Tall by Jez Alborough.
Trucks and Diggers by DK Publishing.
Women & Self-Esteem by Linda Tschirhart Sanford and Mary Ellen Donovan

Miscellaneous:
Kirby Went to the Beach by Sean Sammis

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The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D: 03/03/08

A forgotten key leads to a friendship between Lily and her "mean, unfriendly, and nasty [and] ugly" neighbor Mr. Freeman and his four equally ugly cats. Lily learns to appreciate the cats for their own unique qualities and decides to find homes for them when Mr. Freeman dies.

The bulk of the story is Lily's attempts to find homes for the four cats whom she names Barney, Barbie, Dolly and Leonardo. Her goal is to find homes for them before the apartment manager calls the SPCA and has them taken away and killed. There is just one problem with this threat, the San Francisco SPCA is a no-kill shelter; had this book been set anywhere else, I would have believed the treat. Nonetheless, Lily does believe the threat and works quickly to find homes.

What I liked most about the story was how Lily took responsibility for the cats even when the adults around her were unwilling or unable to help her. Marilyn Sachs did a good job of revealing the cats' personalities as Lily gains their trust. She wisely chose to end the story on a bittersweet note in regards to Leonardo's fate; not all animals can be found homes but it is worth trying to anyway.