This final one took me by surprise. Not all fighting, and it wraps things up nicely. The cats all explain themselves, make amends, find what they were looking for, and come to some realizations that they are living their best lives. In a nutshell: Madara tells why he liked to mess around poking his fingers into everyone else’s business and pitting the street cats against each other. He’d been raised in a cage by some cat hoarder, treated badly, and then didn’t know how to survive as a stray when escaped. Nobody helped him, so he kind of hated all the other cats. He leaves. Ryuusi finally locates the calico tom he was looking for- the guy had been his mentor when he was younger, but deliberately pushed him away at some point, in a bitter altercation (wherein Ryuusi lost that part of his ear). Everyone thought this was Madara’s doing, but really the calico used that as an excuse. He’d been trying to isolate himself because was ill, felt near to dying and wanted to spare the younger cat seeing that. Instead of expiring in the weeds though, he was taken in by a human and got treatment. So the cats also come to understand that some people are good to them (including ones that feed the colonies). Mocchi the exotic shorthair gets reunited with his human and goes back to living in a house. The tabby brothers decide to tone down all the fighting and appreciate the good things in life more- sunshine, companionship, good things to eat, etc. The Bengal and the Sphinx get welcomed into the gang (with the hairless cat now a self-appointed babysitter- all the kittens think he’s cool!) That guy was always just seeking his own, to find where he belonged, too. There’s not so many odd cat poses in this book (as only a few brief fight scenes) until the end, when they all break into pages of dancing! Ugh. Oh WELL.
Borrowed from the public library.
