Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology

By Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton

A FINALIST FOR THE 26TH LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD

What do our pets do when they're not with us? Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton used GPS, cat cameras, psychics, and the web to track the adventures of their beloved cat Tibia.

Caroline Paul was recovering from a bad accident and thought things couldn't get worse. But then her beloved cat Tibia disappeared. She and her partner, illustrator Wendy MacNaughton, mourned his loss. Yet weeks later, Tibia waltzed back into their lives. His owners were overjoyed. But they were also...jealous? Betrayed? Where had their sweet anxious cat disappeared to? Had he become a swashbuckling cat adventurer? Did he love someone else more? His owners were determined to find out.

Using GPS technology, cat cameras, psychics, the web, and animal communicators, the authors of Lost Cat embarked on a quest to discover what their cat did when they weren't around. Told through writer Caroline Paul's rich and warmly poignant narrative and illustrator Wendy MacNaughton's stunning and hilarious 4-color illustrations, Lost Cat is a book for animal lovers, pet owners, and anyone who has ever done anything desperate for love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Release date: Apr 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781620405307

Caroline Paul

Caroline Paul is the author of Fighting Fire, a memoir of her time as a firefighter in San Francisco, where she still lives. This is her first novel.

Book preview

One day, I was in a plane crash.

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The plane, which I was piloting, was nothing more than sailcloth and aluminum tubing and a lawnmower engine. It was called an experimental plane, as if the flying part was just sort of a guess. Which it was, on this day anyway. On this day, it was an experiment that had failed.

I crawled from the wreckage dazed and bloody. Please don’t call 911, I said to the first person who arrived. But there was no mistaking the dangling ankle, the misshapen wrist, the blood from my head now soaking my green flight suit, the confusion, and the bits of my experimental plane strewn behind me, like a riot in the last moments of a going-out-of-business sale.

At the hospital, they said, No internal bleeding or brain damage. Aren’t you the lucky girl? Nurses circled with professional ardor, bearing whirring machines and frowns. Doctors poked and prodded. I was told I had a bad break of the tibia and the fibula.

The Tibia and the Fibula?! I said, tasting the blood in my mouth, feeling the bruises on my arm, laughing through my morphine haze. When I explained that those were my cats, the staff just nodded, expressionless; to them, I was just another numbskull hallucinating on a gurney. But it was true. Two thirteen-year-old tabbies, affectionately nicknamed Tibby and Fibby, were now wondering where the heck I was and why I hadn’t come home.

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For the next few days, my girlfriend, Wendy, held my hand and assured me that everything was fine. The house was fine, she said. Tibby and Fibby were fine. You’re fine. She brought me ice and small cups of chocolate pudding, which sat uneaten. She slept in an uncomfortable chair until the nurses told her visiting hours were over, then returned the next day to do it again.

We were in a new relationship, that phase of love that didn’t obey any known rules of physics. The past six months had been a stomach-dropping, world-tilting, rainbow-laden, cloud-gilded time, during which we had showed only our perfect selves. That was clearly over. I was overmedicated, wild-haired, unwashed, and fragile, with multiple oozing wounds. There was a bandage for the arm, stitches for the head, and emergency surgery for the left ankle. Wendy ran her hands over my blue paper gown and said I looked beautiful.

The leg was fitted carefully back together. To keep it in place, there was metal scaffolding inside and out. The ankle had been in smithereens, the surgeon told us with an expression that suspiciously resembled glee.

It looked like those crushed potato chip pieces, the ones you have to tip the bag into your mouth to get to, he said, and mimed the tipping of the bag in case I didn’t understand. He shrugged to indicate he couldn’t promise anything, despite the joists and girders below my hip. Then he ordered the staff to pump me with morphine. They watched my progress, and finally sent me home to San Francisco.

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Tibia and Fibula meowed happily when I arrived. They were undaunted by my ensuing stupor. In fact they were delighted; suddenly I had become a human who didn’t shout into a small rectangle of lights and plastic in her hand, peer at a computer, or get up and disappear from the vicinity, only to reappear through the front door hours later. Instead, I was completely available to them at all times. Amazed by their good luck, they took full feline advantage. They asked for ear scratches and chin rubs. They rubbed their whiskers along my face. They purred in response to my slurred, affectionate baby talk. But mostly they just settled in and went to sleep. Fibby snored into my neck. Tibby snored on the rug nearby. Meanwhile I lay awake, circling the deep dark hole of depression.

Without my cats, I would have fallen right in.

Wendy didn’t understand the Cat Thing. If Fibby jumped onto her lap, her hands shot skyward in an about-to-be-frisked posture. She patted Tibby on the head as if she was extinguishing a small fire. But she put on her game face when I cooed and babbled like an overwrought aphasic, and she tried to see what all the fuss was about.

But let me introduce you. Here is Fibby, in a typical repose.

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See how she rules the world, even while asleep? She was the energetic and sociable one, always eager for human attention. Every lap was designed for her small, round belly, and every nose was a place to put her dainty paw. When my car pulled into the garage, she often leapt from wherever she was and trotted to the entrance, meowing her dismay. Where have you been, her meows seemed to say. And why have you been there so long? Then she would shutter her eyes slowly, wind herself around my legs, and forgive me.

It was hard to believe that Tibby was her brother. He was so anxious and shy. It didn’t matter that he was a big cat with large, dark,

Reviews for Lost Cat

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extra points for quirky illustrations that add to the humor of the tale. Ms. Paul's efforts to discover where her cat disappeared to are funny and slightly neurotic but in the end are an interesting comment on relationships with free creatures (and other people).

[asawyer_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cute story, easy fast read. I've always wondered where my kitties go... and why. These women find out. Beautiful watercolors to match the story. Definitely a kitty person's book.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My husband found this little gem at the library. Paul wondered where her cat went when he disappeared for weeks on end. As well as other methods she tried tracking him with GPS, which only showed a street map covered with a mass of scribbles like a child's first attempt with crayons. A little video camera on his collar showed he spent hours sleeping among the dandelions, as well as lengthy footage of the back of her own head while he slept on her pillow. Happily she found the answer in the end. This is a very entertaining one-afternoon read. The illustrations were done by Paul's partner, Wendy MacNaughton and are just priceless. This is a creative story by a very astute cat watcher. A must-read for cat lovers, but anyone will enjoy this.

[rknickme · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Note to self: do not read books about cats during your lunch hour at work, or you may get teary-eyed at a non-optimal time. That said, I loved this. The illustrations are so lovely, and the story is told with a surprisingly deft and light-hearted hand for something that is really quite dark at times. This is, after all, not just about a cat that leaves and then comes back. It's about love and loss and the inevitable ways things change over time. It's ultimately hopeful and warm and charming and I wanted to read it again as soon as I put it down. I also wanted to hug my cat. Many times. All the way through.

[tbrown3131949 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The review is available at The Gray Planet.

Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, by Caroline Paul, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton, is a short, kind of cute, illustrated book about Caroline Paul’s cats, Tibula and Fibula. The cats are litter mates, but very different. Paul is injured when she crash lands an experimental plane, and she endures a long convalescence in her home, cared for by Wendy MacNaughton. While Paul is convalescing, Fibby disappears for a few weeks and then returns unharmed. Depressed and physically limited by her injuries, Paul becomes obsessed with discovering where Fibby had spent his time and why.
Paul’s obsession results in consulting psychics, pet detectives, and using GPS receivers and cameras attached to Fibby’s collar, in an attempt to find where and with whom Fibby spent the missing time. It’s all kind of cute and Paul does try to put some meat into the story by associating her obsession with Fibby’s escapades with the depression that accompanies her convalescence and by showing us that the resolution of these problems requires engagement with her neighbors—actually talking to people and being nice. But although it rings true, I just didn’t care much. I only finished the book because it was so short and the pages flew by filled with MacNaughton’s nice illustrations.
Forty years ago, when I had my own tomcat who disappeared for days at a time, I might have cared a little more, but now, not so much.

[lostinalibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lost Cat is a funny and heartwarming tale of the extent to which people will go where their pets are concerned. After author Caroline Paul is injured in a plane crash, she is depressed and on pain killers. She feels that things couldn't get worse until her shy and easily frightened cat, Tibby, goes missing. She is devastated but five weeks later, he saunters home none the worse for wear - if anything, he seems healthier than when he left. At first, Caroline is thrilled to have him back but then some other emotion sets in - jealousy maybe, a touch of bitterness. After all, she has loved and taken care of Tibby since he was a kitten - how could he abandon her like that? Worse, he now won't eat at home and heads off daily for parts unknown without so much as a wink or a wag of a tail to her. She conjures up all kinds of explanations for this new cavalier attitude he has developed - he went walkabout, he went on an important and secret expedition to Antarctica, he's a pirate.

With the help of her partner, Wendy McNaughton who also illustrated the book, Paul tries to discover where Tibby goes when he leaves each day. They attach GPS and a cat cam to his collar; they contact a pet psychic and a pet detective (yes, they do exist outside of Jim Carrey movies); and they tack leaflets to every tree and post. Nothing works until McNaughton convinces Paul that perhaps actually getting out and talking to their neighbours might be the best solution. At first Paul resists, after all, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of the people living in this quiet upscale neighbourhood in San Fransisco. Finally, though, in desperation she agrees and soon she learns, like Tibby did before her, that there's a great big wonderful world to discover if she is willing to take that first cautious step outside her door.

Thanks to Paul's great self-deprecating sense of humour and McNaughton's wonderfully silly illustrations, Lost cat makes for a fun and funny read. Pet lovers everywhere will recognize themselves in some of the insanity and cat-haters will enjoy seeing their own 'crazy kitty lady' aunt so well and lovingly depicted in Paul.

[abycats_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully illustrated book that should only be read in hard copy, not Kindle. It's the brief, but heartfelt, tale about a couple whose cat disappeared. Altho the cat returns on his own, he is obviously eating somewhere else. This drives his people crazy. They start an investigation to find out where he's been and is going back to. The volume morphs into a detective story as they use GPS and a kitty camera. Turns out to be a lovely small tale about our relationship with our pets and our neighbors. Another of those fast reads I need right now and worth the time to dash thru.

[kmajort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Maybe it was timing... I'd been reading a LOT of mystery/horror ... not the stuff I can read before going to bed anymore.
;/
So friend Lisa said: "Read this! It's really quick, but So Good!"

And it is.
Took a few sessions of pre-bed reading, had me laughing out loud at times, reading to my husband (who reading too, so I wasn't keeping him up really).

Even if you're not an extreme cat person, if you know someone who is, you'll enjoy this.

[jewel.barnett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun read.

[emilyesears · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this because Joy the Baker mentioned it on her blog. It only took about 1.5 hours to read--such a sweet book. The art was lovely and I found the story captivating. It reminded me of that documentary the BBC did about tracking cats--if you liked that doc, you'll like this book.

[lisapeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It always seems slightly condescending to call a book "charming," but this one really was. I was looking for an undemanding, shortish bedtime read over the weekend and this off the bookshelf pretty much at random as I drifted by—I gave it to Jeff a couple of years ago, but had never read it myself. The book, by Caroline Paul, tells of her mission to discover where her beloved cat Tibby disappeared to for five weeks—and then came home well-fed, smug and sleek, with newfound kitty confidence. It’s illustrated by Paul’s partner, Wendy Macnaughton, who’s a favorite artist of mine—she did a wonderful graphic essay on the San Francisco Public Library—and the book is, yes, utterly charming, not to mention full of cat surveillance tips.

[joeydag · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun, light read. Insights into a city dwelling cat lover's adventure.

[amillion-863749 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cute story, easy fast read. I've always wondered where my kitties go... and why. These women find out. Beautiful watercolors to match the story. Definitely a kitty person's book.

[momsterbookworm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this quick-read of a book. I loved the self-deprecating humor. The focus of the story is narrow: cat lost, cat returned, obsession to find out where cat had been. Frantic owner and aloof and indifferent cat makes for a fun read.

[pegcam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful little (true) story, and a must-read for anyone who is a cat lover.

[m2snick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you love a cat, might love a cat someday, or just plain like cats you will enjoy this quick easy read. Whimsical illustrations are a bonus. There are laughs, there are tears.
It's very entertaining.

[pool_boy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love love love this book. The obsessed nature of the owner is a little freaky, but then again, you want to KNOW what happened to your cat, even when they do come home. Easy read and I picked up the book and hugged it as I finished it.

[jsgoodman-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Illustrated with quirky little watercolor paintings, this funny and touching story of a woman’s growing obsession to find out where her cat wanders off to, will speak to cat owners and those who love them. As the result of a terrible accident, Caroline is confined to her house for a long, depressing recuperation. For company, she has her two cats, Tibby and Fibby, and her new girlfriend, Wendy. When not worrying whether her new relationship will survive this early (and large) bump in the road, Caroline lavishes the cats with love and attention. When the shyer of the two kitties goes missing, Caroline is beside herself and wonders obsessively where he has gone. What follows is a humorous account of Caroline’s neurotic accounting of how she and Wendy, using an array of digital and analog detecting technology to discover Tibby’s secrets. A quick, engaging read.

[seekandfind-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have often wondered where my cats go when they leave the house, so this book was very intriguing to me. And the short length helped me to read it quickly. It was easy reading and funny. I even cried at one point.

However, it wasn't what I expected. I was expecting more of a narrative of a cat's life outdoors. Instead, it was the narrative of a cat owner trying to discover where her cat had gone on his 5-week vacation. With a little pet detective work, she does figure out where he spent most of his time while away. In the end, it all made a lot of sense.

If you want a quick, light read to pass the time and you are a cat owner, you'll probably like this. If you're looking for some insight into your cat's life outdoors, look elsewhere.

Also, the author is very upfront about being a lesbian in a committed relationship and being agnostic, so if either of these are a problem for you, you have been warned.

This ebook was provided to me for free by NetGalley.

[nightprose · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very sweet book. It drew me in, and I read it in one sitting.

The author is going through a rough time, when her cat seems to dessert her. It becomes her mission to find him. She feels she must uncover where he is going, but also why he left her.
She becomes obsessed, much to the dismay of those around her.

With the help of posters, persistence, time, and GPS tracking devices, she does manage to get answers. However, the answers may not be the ones she wanted. Be careful what you wish for.

I love this book. It is written with honesty and humour, and with love.