The Complete Cat Manual
How to give your cat the longest, healthiest life you can, from a man who sat a shelter intake desk for eighteen years and saw which cats came back, and why.
Cats hide illness. By the time a cat looks sick she has usually been sick for months, and the bill is three times what it would have been in week two. This manual teaches you to see it in week two: what to check on the couch once a month, what the litter box is telling you, how to fix the 4 a.m. wake-up, how to bring in a second cat so it holds, and what she has been trying to say to you all along.
The early-warning checks, the problem protocols, and the translation dictionary.
59 pages, illustrated, organized so you can open the right page at four in the morning. Every chapter is one real cat from the intake desk, what it turned out to mean, how to tell it on your own cat with what you already own, and exactly what to do.
- The complete 59-page illustrated manual, 44 chapters in nine parts
- Part 1, The Early Warning System: the six checks that catch illness months before symptoms
- Eight Problem Protocols, each one starting with "rule out illness first"
- The 14-Day Second-Cat Introduction, day by day
- The Translation Dictionary: what walking on you, following you and the 3 a.m. sounds mean
- Which Cat Is Your Cat: seven coats, the settled genetics and the claims that are not
- Bonus: The Red Flag Card, the call-today list for the fridge (printable)
- Bonus: The Vet Visit Sheet, the four tests to ask for by name (printable)
- Bonus: Toxic Foods and Plants, the 14-Day Introduction Planner, the Lost Cat Protocol, the 3-Minute Check, the Intake Card, the Return-Reason Sheet (all printable)
- Lifetime updates: every future edition free
44 chapters. Nine parts. Ordered for the night you need it.
What could hurt her first. The problems that drive you crazy second. The second cat, then what she is saying, then which cat you have, and, once she is safe, the part where you finally understand her.
PART 1The Early Warning System6 chapters · the three-minute look, the kitchen scale, the four tests to ask for by name
PART 2Problem Protocols8 chapters · litter box, scratching, biting, the 4 a.m. wake-up, allergies, moving
PART 3The Second Cat4 chapters · the 14-day introduction, the rule of plenty, reading the fight first
PART 4The Translation Dictionary5 chapters · walks on you, follows you, the 3 a.m. sounds, the paw on your arm
PART 5Which Cat Is Your Cat7 chapters · seven coats, including the tabby every other book skips
PART 6The Ones Who Wait5 chapters · black cats, seniors, bonded pairs, the cat who came back
PART 7Reading the Card5 chapters · how a shelter desk reads a cat in three minutes
PART 8The Last Chapter4 chapters · how a cat says goodbye, the decision, the next cat
PART 9The Card Pack8 cards · 8 printable cards for the fridge
The kitchen scale on Sunday. The tabby everyone skipped. The cat that waited 118 days.
Weigh her on Sunday
The single cheapest thing you can do for a cat over seven. What a number looks like when it starts to drift, and the four tests to ask for by name when it does.
Tabby cats: the four patterns and the M
The chapter the two biggest cat videos of the year left out, and hundreds of viewers asked for. Mackerel, classic, spotted, ticked, and the ghost stripes on a black kitten.
Why the black cat waited longest
Days, by year, from one desk. And what the ones who finally went home were like a year later, from the follow-up calls.
The Card Pack. Print them on plain paper.
Stick them where you will see them at two in the morning.
Caught in week two, or found in month eight.
Not a promise. Four things that come through a shelter desk every month, costed two ways: the bill when nobody was looking, and the bill when somebody was. Typical U.S. ranges, and they vary. The point is the shape.
When it is found late
When somebody had the manual
Figures are illustrative ranges of common U.S. feline care costs and vary widely by case, region and clinic. This book is educational. It is not veterinary advice, a diagnosis, or a guarantee of any outcome or saving. If your cat is unwell, call a veterinarian.
Read nine pages before you decide.
The cover, the contents, the word before you start, and two whole chapters: the kitchen scale on Sunday, and the tabby chapter. Free. It is the same file, just shorter.
I am not a vet. I sat the desk.
I walked into the Montgomery County shelter in Dayton, Ohio in 2006, at twenty, to clean kennels for a summer. I sat the intake desk for six years and ran adoptions for twelve. I wrote the yellow card on the kennel door, and then I saw what happened to that cat, and more often than anybody likes to say, I saw it come back.
This manual is everything I wish somebody had handed me in 2006, sorted the way you will need it, and every health chapter tells you plainly where I stop and your vet starts.
Read Part One this week. It is the one that adds the years.
— Dan Keller
Questions I get asked first.
How do I get it after I pay?
Right away. The download lands in your email within a minute, through Gumroad. Nothing ships. If it does not arrive, check spam, then write to the address on the receipt and I will send it by hand.
What format is it? Can I print it?
A standard PDF, 59 pages. It reads on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and it prints on plain paper. The 8 cards at the back are made to be printed and stuck on the fridge.
Is the type big enough to read comfortably?
Yes. The body is set in Charter, a serif made for print, at a size chosen for readers over fifty-five, with room between the lines. On a tablet you can zoom as far as you like. The cards are set larger still.
Are you a veterinarian?
No, and it is the first sentence of the book. I sat the intake desk at a county shelter for six years and ran adoptions for twelve. Every health chapter ends with the line where I stop and your vet starts, and names the test to ask for. This manual gets you to the clinic sooner. It never replaces it.
My cat is old. Is it too late for this to help?
No. Part One is written for cats over seven: the weight that drifts, the breath, the four blood and pressure tests to ask for by name. Part Eight is the last chapter, written gently. Those two parts are where the years come from.
My cat is a kitten. Is this for me?
Yes. The habits in Part One are easiest to build when she is young, Part Two is what stops a kitten becoming a returned cat, and Part Seven shows you how to read her the way a shelter desk would on day one.
Only 59 pages? The other manuals say 250 or 470.
On purpose. 44 chapters you will actually read instead of four hundred pages you will not. Every chapter is one real cat from the desk, what it meant, how to tell it on your own cat, and what to do. Nothing is padded to make the number bigger.
Is this a subscription?
No. One payment of $29.99 with the code and it is yours, including every future edition free.
What is the refund policy?
Thirty days, no questions asked, and you keep the file. Write to the address on your receipt.
How does the DAN40 code work?
It is already on every button on this page. You will see $29.99 at checkout, not $49.99. It is 40% off through Sunday night. If you came from the free sample, the same code is on that receipt.
Read the first part this week. It is the one that adds the years.
Weigh her on a kitchen scale on Sunday. Lift the lip. Read the litter box the way the manual shows you. Three habits, one week, and the next time something changes, you will be the one who noticed.
This book contains general information about cat care from an experienced shelter worker who is not a veterinarian. It is not veterinary advice and does not replace examination, diagnosis or treatment by a licensed veterinarian. If your cat shows signs of illness, contact a veterinarian; in an emergency, go to an emergency clinic. Shelter figures are one county's desk records, not a study. Images on this page are generated illustrations. Payments and downloads are processed by Gumroad.
Wait — one thing
Catch one thing early and the $29.99 pays for itself.
A weight change spotted on a kitchen scale in week two is a diet tweak. Found in month eight it is a $1,300 work-up. 44 chapters, 8 cards for the fridge, and the DAN40 code is already on the button. 30-day refund if it is not for you.
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