Third book about Plum and her kitten companion Snowball (the biter). This volume I felt, started to veer a little further from the realism. More of the cats’ thoughts and behavior is akin to people instead of cats- making wishes, participating in holiday activities, being jealous and scheming about things cats probably wouldn’t think of! I also found it odd that there was a short all about the cats suddenly becoming concerned about climate change, and trying to do things to reduce energy consumption- like going around the house turning all the light switches off (which baffled the humans). Cute, but just a bit odd.
Well, in the main part of the story, Plum (as usual) gets in trouble for messes caused by Snowball. The son’s friend brings his older brother over, who definitely doesn’t like cats, and they all try to devise ways to get him comfortable around the kitties. Snowball goes to the vet, who determines she’s getting overweight, so she’s put on diet food. Of course she refuses to eat it, so Plum takes matters into her own paws- and gets more involved than she’d wanted! The family installs a cat flap to one of the doors in the house, and Snowball balks at using it. Her favorite squeaky mouse toy goes missing, which causes all sorts of upset. The son becomes ill, has to stay in bed, and the cats show how much they care. The family notices how friendly Snowball is with the neighbor’s black manx kitten Princess, and they come up with all kinds of stories about why the kittens are such pals. Finally agreeing on the theory that these two were originally from the same litter, and are actually sisters. Final chapter is Plum’s dream- which was funny and curious, but not at all what a cat would probably dream, once again more like human ideas put into a cat head. So getting to be more like What’s Michael? in that regard. Also I noticed that so far there’s been no more mention of the mother’s drinking problem, which kind of surprised me as I was expecting that to be part of the continual storyline (like Snowball’s biting, which is gradually becoming less of a problem).
Borrowed from the public library. Next in the series.
