Those who enjoy animal anecdotes, even some haiku by a French poodle, will find most of Scott Simon’s musings amusing in his collection Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known. However, it’s about pets, and very few of them outlive us. It’s the love we share, and the connections that Simon discusses. “The pure, unequivocal love our animals call out in us is in our voices when we speak to them, in our hands as we touch them, and ultimately, in our tears and hopes to see them again when all our mortal lives have run out.”
Right now, Simon’s household consists of his wife, two daughters, a French poodle, a foster cast, and a hamster. However, with this animal-loving family, even the earthworms in a container on their patio are part of the family. Simon has memories of animals from his whole life, beginning with a German shepherd, Penny, that his parents had before he was born. One of the amusing stories is of his mother pretending to be blind when they went out to dinner because they were afraid the dog would tear up the apartment while they were out. Although they were divorced by the time young Scott adopted a grasshopper, Hoppy, they both tried to help him keep his pet alive. Then there was the cat he rescued when British interns at the embassy lost it. He was allowed to keep it, with the understanding he would raise the cat as British.
While he only briefly touches on adopting their daughters from China, Simon does compare it to adopting a pet. As a reporter who covered war zones, Scott Simon has seen people adopt pets who need them during those awful times. He did profiles of pets in Sarajevo, stories people still remember. And, those stories, along with times he’s had to sit with an animal and let it go, are touching. I did cry when he finally let go of an aging, dying cat. “The animals who join us in our lives remind us, time after time and in way after way, that often the best thing we can do for one another in life is just to be there.”
There are stories of trying to train the dog, Daisy. Their hamster, Bagel, is an escape artist. (Aren’t all hamsters?) And, there are those haikus Daisy writes, along with accounts of artists and their pets. The essays are accompanied by delightful line drawings by Liana Finck. Ulysses S. Cat is an animal lovers compilation, by someone who loves animals ,for those of us who have also been touched at one time by animals in our lives. It’s an amusing, sometimes touching, quick read.
Scott Simon’s website is https://www.scottsimonbooks.com/
Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known by Scott Simon. W.W. Norton & Company, 2026. 212p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
