The Fire Cat

The Fire CatBy Esther Averill

My human brought this book home because she remembered reading it when she was a kitten… I mean, a kid. It’s about Pickles, a homeless cat with big paws who would spend his days chasing little cats (being a little cat, I wasn’t too fond of that part of the book). Some kindly lady with a funny hairdo tried to take him in, but he didn’t like the indoor life and eventually he wound up being adopted by a fire station. Finally he learned to get along with other cats and came to a kitten’s rescue.

The Fire Cat is a nice story for young children and cats with just a couple of exceptions. There’s an implication that because Pickles had big paws, he was destined to accomplish big things. I have small, very dainty paws and I’ve accomplished some pretty big things on the Internet, thank you very much. And the other thing that bothered me was that fire hat they put on Pickles — no self-respecting cat would ever allow a monstrosity like that to be placed on his head, much less be proud of it! But overall, these are small complaints. While I never would have chosen Pickles’ life at the fire station, I do have to admire his spunk.