Cats in the Navy

Cats. Cats. Cats. Most of us love them, but this gives a fantastic view of some history of cats. In navy. In very simple and eye comforting designed pages you get to know all about their role in the navy. Great trivia and facts with plenty of lovely pictures. Great to gift to somebody or to just read it for more information you probably did not know. I enjoyed it and cant wait to get my hands on a printed copy for me and my friends who are also big cat lovers.

How can you not love this book?! Cute and interesting coffee table book that would make a purr-fect present for a feline-loving friend or family member. I loved the old photos and illustrations and the accompanying text was great bite-sized information.

I am a cats lover and used-to-be cats owner who are always on the look out for some cats related books. Then suddenly i saw this book here on NetGalley, i just had to read it. Thank you Naval Institute Press for granting my request to read an e-Arc copy of this entertaining book!.

This book is said to be a hardcover book, filled with about 80 very adorable photos of cats who served in the navy that are going to make anyone go, "awww...so cute!" as you turn those pages, and i am one of such person. The layout of the book is basically alternating between some written texts on the history of the felines in the navy and some black and white photos of the cats and the navy members. However, it is just a very quick read as the written texts is laid out only in one page and written in a fun,entertaining and very amusing way that is guarantee to make you laugh out loud as you turn those pages because i did!.

Overall, it is a bittersweet recollections of history. The history of the furry sailors, of the very important roles they play in the navy and how they leave the deepest and biggest mark on those navy lives and in ours as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a fun and entertaining read,regardless if you are a cat lover or not. I mean who can resist looking at those cute cats wearing their sailor's costumes and hats?!.

Little did i know what a big mark and very important role cats had in the navy, as usually we are used to hearing stories about dogs,pigeons/birds,horses,elephants and even the dolphins roles in the military and in war but rarely about cats! So,why not let this be the first, new experience for you?.

Sometimes after reading some of the heavier material I normally end up reading, I need a nice bit of fluffy escapism to lift me up. One of my low-key favorites is reading or listening to stories about animals during wartime or in the military service. This is assuming I’m not listening to or reading stories about Russian “tank dogs”, or some such, as that’s insanely depressing. Cats in the Navy by Scot Christenson, and published by The US Naval Institute Press, is one such light-hearted book that takes a rather in depth look at The military use of feline “soldiers” to keep ships vermin and disease free. Spanning over a century of historic records, this book is a fun look at a rather overlooked topic.

“Cats were seen as omens in ancient times but eventually became trusted animal companions to those who sailed the seas. From catching rats at docks and on ships at sea, cats often became mascots to the navies around the globe. Filled with informative text and more than eighty photos, Cats in the Navy provides a fun history of our feline friends who rode the waves with us.”

The format of this book is largely that of a photography book with around one hundred images of cats in the service of various naval ships. These pictures alternate between pages of written text, usually outlining the images you are looking at and what importance they hold. The book itself is a hardcover 8×10 volume and will look great on any military history lover’s bookshelf, although for this review I was only able to see a digital version. Most of the photographs are black and white (the reason will come later), so I liked the use of color in the book – vibrant yellows and blues, to make the photos pop and give the book a warm, almost nostalgic feeling.

As with many fun things, the use of cats in The Navy was largely upended in the 1950s due to the government seeing the practice as both frivolous and costly to American taxpayers. Considering the infamous stories of Government Appropriations of ten thousand dollar coffee pots, fifty dollar screws, and other vaguely questionable things the general public actually know about – having a cat or dog onboard a ship seems like small potatoes, but I digress. Due to this, most images, with a few exceptions, are from WWI and WWII.

Fans of seeing cute cat photos will love this book, as seeing cats in little sailor costumes and sleeping in little cat hammocks is pretty fun. I say this as a grown thirty-nine year old man that listens to metal music, cat pictures can brighten any day. Some of the sailor superstitions in the book were very interesting to read about, namely the belief that if a ship’s cat was seen trying to abandon the ship before it departed at port signaled and upcoming disaster, or a random catfight aboard a ship was actually The Devil himself battling an angel for the souls of the sailors aboard.

Overall, this book was an entertaining quick read and would be a perfect gift for a cat lover or military enthusiast alike. If my step-father, who was a Navy Veteran and cat enthusiast, was still around I’m sure he would have loved this book. I’m glad the book stayed on the lighter end of things, because reading about some of the ship cats that likely didn’t make it would have been too much of a bummer, so kudos to the author. When thinking about this topic, One previous book by USNI and their comic imprint Dead Reckoning comes to mind, Four-Fisted Tales, so if you also like this sort of thing, check that out as well.

I'm seriously a cat-enthusiast so how could I not love this book?! I enjoyed every single part of it. The writing was fluent and I finished it in 2 days.

For anyone who has scrolled through pictures of cute kitties on any social media page - this book is for you.

Christenson unearths an astounding amount of photos and facts about cats that served in the British and American navies in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a heavy emphasis on WWII. I would have preferred if the book had been arranged chronologically, but it still manages to cover a lot of ground.

Cats have always been prized for the ability to perform pest control, and while that was a major part of their role onboard, Christenson shows how these cats did a lot to help keep these men <i>sane</i>.

Decades before any sort of mental health services were available for people in the armed services, these cats helped remind these men to stay playful, to laugh, and to care about others - especially those smaller than them.

The cats personalities radiated off the page, most of them only reluctantly posing for the camera, all of them well aware they deserved to be worshipped.

An excellent history book about a side of military life not often spotlighted.