Homer the Blind Cat
UPDATE: Click here to see our memorial post for Homer the blind cat and graphic we made for him. Rest in peace dear Homer the Wondercat.
I’m a huge fan of consuming, collecting and reading books of every kind but I also love libraries. As you can tell, the book for this review is library book open to display front and back covers. I’m blessed to live near one of the loveliest libraries overlooking the Hudson River in Westchester County, N.Y.
Odin, pictured above has only one eye but is not impaired in any way. Merlin is slowly going blind but navigates just fine. But what about a cat who had both eyes removed to save his life as kitten? That cat would be Homer, the hero in Gwen Cooper’s bestselling memoir Homer’s Odyssey:A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life With a Blind Wonder Cat. I finally got around to reading this joyous ode to life, published in 2009. While reading I kept doing kitty math. How old would Homer be now and what about the author’s other two cats? I deliberately didn’t Google the information until after I read the ending. I couldn’t bear the thought of him being dead.
After Cooper moved from Miami to New York in 2000, she lived a few blocks from the World Trade Center. Both Gwen and her cats survived 9/11 and it’s the most nail-biting section of the book. There is no fiercer love than a devoted cat mom and Gwen Cooper stooped at nothing to rescue her cats.
Homer lives up to his heroic name in fearlessness and pure spunk. There are many ways of being blind and Homer defies all of them. This story has a happy ending with Cooper finding love with a man who wasn’t a cat lover. Did they live happily ever after? Gwen Cooper has a delightful Web site and blog where I silently cheered. Homer’s alive! He’s a senior boy now (his 15th birthday is on August 1). Gwen and hubby Lawrence are still happily married and celebrated her 4oth birthday in Paris last year. It turns out the former non-cat lover Lawrence is a happy convert. The sad news is their cats Vashti died over a year ago and Scarlett died last year. It brought a tear to my eye to read that Scarlett’s ashes were scattered in one of my favorite parks. It lifted my heavy heart to learn Cooper has written a novel with cat character based on Scarlett. It’s always a joy to find a writer we can emotionally connect with.
Cooper donates 10% of domestic royalties to charities aiding blind cats such the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary in North Carolina.
Visit Homer on Facebook or Gwen Cooper at GwenCooper.com
- Homer’s Odyssey:A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life With a Blind Wonder Cat. Amazon
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1 edition (August 25, 2009)
- Cat Wisdom 101 Rating: 4 paws
14 Comments
AbigailClaus
I loved it too😃
Oui Oui
That sounds like a great book. I wonder if there is a Kindle version of it?
Ryker's Boyz 'n' Allie
We think it’s THE best true cat story, ever. Mommy laffed & cried a LOT when reading it. She likes to say “Gwen had her at Dayenu.”
boomermuse
We can’t believe we were so late to read it!
AbigailClaus
Me too😂
Abby
We have followed Homer for years and cried when Vashi died and most recently when Scarlett did. But Gwen’s book was fabulous and we highly recommend it to all.
purrs
>^,,^<
♥Abby♥Boo♥Ping♥Jinx♥Grace♥
Brian
How could ya not love that Homer? Impossible!
Caren Gittleman
Gwen will always have a special place in my heart. She was literally one of the first people I had met on Twitter. She had contacted me asking me if I would like to review her book, it was my first book review on Cat Chat. I adored that book and I adore Gwen as well.
boomermuse
Caren, wow, that is special. You did a great job on your review.
Ryker's Boyz 'n' Allie
Us too, Caren! She & Homer have a special place in our hearts dating back to when Ryker first started tweeting.
Funny, when Homer told us she’d written a book about him, Mommy said “sure! We’d looove to read it!” thinking, oh dear, what will we say if it’s awful…. (Mommy didn’t know Gwen other than through twitter, so had *NO* idea she was already an established author)
It was TOTAL facepalm time when, after reading the first 5 pages of the book, Mommy thought, “she’s *really* good at this! She should think about doing this for a living!”
And then she found out Gwen was a NYT bestselling author.
BWA-HA-HAAAA! Was her face red!! WE thought it was hysterical!!!
Kathy Thompson
Wow,another good read. I can’t wait to find this one too. Life is so full of wonderful stories just waiting to be read. Happy Sunday to all. Purrs and luvs Skeeter and Izzy >^..^<
Ingrid King
I read Homer’s Odyssey the week it came out and absolutely adored it. Gwen’s experience after 9/11 was one of the most gut-wrenching things I ever read; she lived every cat parent’s nightmare.
I can’t wait for Gwen’s new book to come out.
boomermuse
Ingrid, didn’t you do one of earliest reviews of the book?
@Caro, truly amazing,
@Kathy, I guarantee, you’ll love it.
CATachresis
I read Homer’s Odyssey a while ago now and absolutely loved it. What an amazing cat .. and relationship with Gwen! I’ve been keeping up with Homer on facebook, so knew he was an elderly cat now.
Glad you enjoyed 🙂