How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You by “The Oatmeal” aka Matthew Inman
Andrews McMeel Publishing 2012
Paperback
131 pages
Comics; Humour

With a title like this, how could I possibly resist reading How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You? I’d never heard of The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman) before or his website, but I can easily see the popularity and I love when they take this kind of thing from a website and make it into a book, which I’ve always found much more accessible (to read, not to access – arguably websites are easier to access!).

I’ve lived with cats all my life, except for three years in Japan, one year in Melbourne, and now (we had to find homes for our three cats after Hugh was born – long story). I’m very much a cat person, even though I’m now allergic to them. They have so much personality, and if they only had opposable thumbs they’d take over the world. We’ve definitely had cats who had that “I’m coming for you” look in their eyes at times – or sure, it’s just my imagination. OR IS IT??!!

This book is a gathering-up of individual cartoon drawings, stand-alone sketches if you will (I can’t think what the word is for them, if there is one), and The Bobcats, from Monday to Saturday. The Bobcats are two cats called Bob who work in an office and really, they fit right in:

The rest is a mix of one-offs, funny graphs and charts, and series of cartoons like the one showing how desperate for attention a cat can get when their human is glued to the internet:

A quick read that will have you giggling, I found it a mix of witty insights into cat (and human) behaviour, and some more ordinary, less clever jokes that were only mildly entertaining for being a bit too obvious. Overall – and the Bobcats carry the greater weight – it was a good chuckle-fest, and a handy book to have on-hand when you need a light distraction or a quick pick-me-up (of the good cheer kind, not the alcoholic variety).