Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known

NPR host Scott Simon (Sunnyside Plaza) shares his love for the animals in his life in this charming essay collection. “We don’t make much of a distinction in our family between humans and the other animals,” he asserts before recounting stories of pets he’s had throughout his life. There’s Hoppy, a grasshopper he brought home from a camping trip as a kid and kept in a jar for a few days until it died, which taught him “love can smother if you’re not careful”; Leona, an orange cat he took in after her caretakers, interns at the British Embassy, moved back home and whom he agreed to rear as a “British cat” (he put pictures of David Beckham over her food bowl); and Daisy, a French poodle his daughters named after the dog in R.J. Palacio’s novel Wonder. Heartwarming accounts of caretaking for even the unlikeliest of critters—be it the colony of worms his family keeps in a bin on their balcony (aptly named “the Slimons”) or the imaginary pet his daughter rescued from the subway—are punctuated with poignant reflections on such topics as animal intelligence, the use of animals in medical research, and end-of-life care. It’s a loving testament to the ability of pets to stretch hearts and minds. Illus. (May)