The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas: How a Cat Brought a Family the Gift of Love

by Julia Romp

Overview

The heart-warming true holiday story of a little boy and the cat that changed his life.

Julia’s nine-year-old son George was autistic. Quiet and withdrawn, he appeared lost in his own world. Then one day a small black-and-white stray cat appeared in her garden and George’s face lit up. George bonded with Ben and began to open up to his mother as well. For three happy years, the trio was inseparable and George made remarkable progress. But then disaster struck—Ben went missing and George regressed. The weeks turned into months, and Christmas was fast approaching, but on December 21, Julia got a call from a family more than fifty miles away, which finally offered a ray of hope...

Genuinely touching, The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas is a story about devotion, love, and a holiday miracle, and is the perfect gift for cat lovers as well as fans of Lil Bub, I Am Pusheen the Cat, and A Street Cat Named Bob.



Perfect for:• White elephant gifts• Animal lover gifts• Cat gifts• Gifts for cat lovers• Christmas gifts

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780452298781
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/25/2012
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Julia Romp lives in the United Kingdom with her son George and their cat Ben. When she is not looking after her family and the stray cats in the area, Julia works for the charity Lost and Found helping to re-home cats. After her success of her campaign to find Ben, Julia has become known as the local pet detective.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The perfect Christmas gift for a cat lover.” – The Weekend Examiner

Editorial Reviews

Rump’s 10-year-old autistic son, George, often felt more to her like a “visitor she could not make happy instead of own child”—that is, until the day a stray cat appeared in their garden. Ben the cat’s impact on the Rump family is the subject of this engaging memoir. Single mother Rump lives with George in a London council estate. When George is born, something is obviously wrong: he cries “day in, day out” and hates to be touched. He barely sleeps, doesn’t make eye contact, and, when he’s older, if a visitor arrived unexpectedly he “curl up into a ball and rock.” However, after they’ve taken their stray cat to the vet and Rump and George visit the cat, George kneels down beside the cage and talks to the cat, who looks George “square in the eyes.” To Rump’s amazement, George doesn’t look away, and instead engages with the cat. After that, as Rump says, “everything changed.” With a fresh, honest, and frequently funny voice, despite the considerable hardships depicted, Rump offers a moving story that comes from the heart. Agent: Laetitia Rutherford, Mulcahy Conway Associates. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas

“Cat lovers will adore this book.”—Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human

“The incredibly moving story of how George found salvation in a loyal pet.”—International Express

“The perfect Christmas gift for a cat lover.”—The Weekend Examiner

“The heartwarming story of a working-class single mother, her autistic son and the stray cat who brought them together as a family.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

The heartwarming story of a working-class single mother, her autistic son and the stray cat who brought them together as a family. Pet rescuer Romp was 22 and unmarried when she gave birth to her son, George. She knew he was different from the outset--restless and always screaming, he "seemed almost tormented by life." Feeling bewildered by her son's bizarre anti-social behaviors and guilty that she couldn't give him a two-parent home, Romp became even more exasperated by the assurances others gave her that George would eventually adjust. It wasn't until her son was 10, however, that the school psychologists confirmed that George was not only autistic, but also had "ADHD and paranoid tendencies." The diagnosis allowed him to get the help he needed, but doctors warned Romp that George would never be a "cuddly boy." Salvation for both mother and son came shortly thereafter in the form of a "thin and sickly" stray cat named Ben. Although George had never been able to bond with other animals, he formed an intense relationship with Ben. Almost immediately, George began speaking to it in a gentle voice, which gave Romp a glimpse of her son's unseen emotional depths. The cat became Romp's key to accessing the closeness she desired with her son, which she achieved by joining him in the narrative world he built around Ben. But when their beloved pet suddenly went missing, her relationship with George was tested. Fortunately, she found the cat a few days before Christmas. More importantly, though, she discovered that while her family of three wasn't the most conventional, it "didn't make it any less of one." Sensitive without being overly sentimental.

Kirkus Reviews