If these numbers of unwanted and discarded animals languishing in cages or being destroyed are upsetting, I suggest doing something positive. We can all make a difference in the lives of homeless animals: supporting your local charity or humane society by donating money, bedding, food, and toys or by fostering and volunteering; helping that poor hungry stray on your doorstep; and feeding, neutering, and caring for feral colonies in your community, whose very existence relies on our compassion (AlleyCat.org is a brilliant and helpful resource).
It’s always the countless small deeds and kindnesses of individuals that have consistently made an impact on the world.
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I. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. http://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics
II. Roughly 71 percent of cats and 57 percent of dogs that enter shelters are killed, according to AmericanHumane.org.
III. Humane Society of the United States. http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/facts-pet-stores-puppy-mills.pdf
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Michael King and Ron Buss for their gracious help, extraordinary stories, dark wit and humor, and patience for enduring seemingly endless interviews. Without their generosity and kindness, I could not have finished this book. Walter Ebert, Kyle Brecheen, Josh Stinson, Linda Tabor, Kathleen King, Xavier Armand, Rockwell Mills, Dr. Bruce Armstrong, Maddie Parker, Al Knauber, and Dylan Brown for all their invaluable contributions. Mata Hairi, Creto, and Sauvie for their own incredible adventure stories and feline charms.
I owe so much to my amazing agent, Bonnie Nadell, who believed in Strays and instantly found it a home at Atria Books, and for all her wisdom and guidance along the way. I am particularly grateful to Joshua Davis for originally commissioning Strays for Epic magazine, his keenness for Michael, Mata, and Ron’s story, editing suggestions, and for introducing me to his agent Bonnie. Stephen Elliott and Harry Spritzer for additional editing and research, respectively, on the original Epic story. And Scott Carney for putting me in touch with Joshua Davis.
I am indebted to my brilliant editor Leslie Meredith, who loved this story from the start and greatly improved it with her light touch, careful pruning, and exacting standards. She constantly pushed me to try harder and dig deeper. Her love and understanding of cats, too, was an unexpected and much-appreciated gift.
I am hugely grateful to my new editor Jhanteigh Kupihea for jumping in at the end, her thoughtful touches and insights, as well as indulging me and fulfilling my wish for a cover that best conveyed the story. I would like to thank Patricia Callahan for her sharp, sensitive copyediting and suggestions that improved every page, and production editor Mark LaFlaur. I must also thank art director Albert Tang and interior designer Kyoko Watanabe for their perfectionism as well as Leslie and Jhanteigh’s lovely assistants, Natasha Rodriguez, Melanie Iglesias-Perez, and Loan Le, and the rest of the talented team at Atria/Simon & Schuster for the skill and enthusiasm they brought to the book and for bringing Strays into the world.
Tiziano Niero, for his unwavering love, encouragement, and insightful and sometimes hilariously mean critiques, and filming the stunning book trailer for Strays. Kevin Grady, my dear old pal and twice-Emmy-nominated creative director, for the gorgeous cover and sheer genius. Endless love and gratitude to my wonderful friends for their relentless support and humor: Stewart Brotherton, Chris Brock, Chrissy Iley, Julia Snell, David Garner, Sibéal Nic Ginnéa, Ludovica Niero, Steven Ludwin, Marion McKeone, Harriet Green, Sharon Walker, Caroline Carpenter, Marc Walker, Dawn Chapman, Jill Starley-Grainger, Jennifer Johnson, Sharon Parham, Trevor Bowen, Stephanie Theobald, Babette Kulik—and especially Victoria Clarke and Jasmin Naim, whom I probably drove mad with countless unsolicited readings of my manuscript.
Special thanks to Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson for writing the foreword for Strays, as well as for being a fearless and eloquent voice for society’s most vulnerable and powerless. His impassioned, thoughtful books about the complex emotional lives of animals have provided so much joy and inspiration and serve as a reminder that cats, dogs, cows, pigs, and other fellow creatures in their vulnerability can teach us humility, decency, boundless love—the things that really matter in this world.
I am humbled and grateful to have crossed paths with Andrew Tyler, Celia Hammond, Francis Battista, and Michael Mountain, who have devoted their lives to rescuing animals and fighting for their rights to be treated with respect, empathy, and dignity, and not being denied their lives for our whims and consumption. Their deep compassion and perseverance for the cause continues to inspire me.
Finally, for Bobby Seale, my spirited six-year-old, orange-eyed marmalade goddess of a cat who loved life and people so much. She was murdered in London on September 23, 2009, by teenage thugs who set their pit bull on her for fun. Bobby’s brutal death shook me to the core and made me fight even harder for abused, abandoned, and suffering animals.
And for all my other lost cats, Tallulah, Edie Sedgwick, Coco, Dylan, Halo, Reverend Baloo, Pixie, Tad, Mowgli, White Baloo, and especially Honey, my ginger Maine coon stunner and cancer survivor who had more character than anyone I’d ever met. They’ve taught me the meaning of morality, brought so much happiness, and left their paw prints on my heart.
I am so grateful for my current little wildcats, Lola, Jimmy Ciambella, Shadow, Stevie Tigerface Wright, and little Murzik Meerkat, who in their own subtle ways left their mark on Strays. I have so much love and reverence for them all. In the words of my favorite writer, Charles Bukowski, “I think the world should be full of cats and full of rain, that’s all, just cats and rain, rain and cats.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Britt Collins is a British journalist and writes for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Independent, Harper’s Bazaar, Condé Nast Traveller (UK) and Billionaire.com. Her volunteer work tending animals at sanctuaries around the world, from big cats and baboons in Namibia to wild horses in Nevada, has inspired features for the Guardian and the Sunday Times. While writing for the British tabloid the Sunday People, she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for many international charities through her investigative animal-cruelty stories; as an activist, she has helped shut down controversial breeders of laboratory animals. She lives with her cats in London.
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Copyright © 2017 by Britt Collins
Foreword © by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
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First Atria Books hardcover edition July 2017
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Interior design by Kyoko Watanabe
Jacket cover design by Kevin Grady
Front jacket photographs © Xavier Armand (Tabor); © Junior Libby (Sky)
Author photograph © Tiziano Niero
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-2259-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-2260-6 (ebook)
Strays Page 23