The Cat Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Troubleshooting Tips,
by Sam Stall, Dr. David Brunner
At a glance
About the Author
Sam Stall, Dr. David Brunner1 book reviewed
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Cat owners — new or experienced — who want a genuinely informative feline care and behavior reference and are happy to receive that information through the playful lens of a product owner's manual.
Worth it if
You enjoy humor writing that doesn't hollow out the substance beneath it, and you want a browsable, entertaining entry point into feline behavior backed by real veterinary credentials.
Skip if
You're looking for a straightforward, traditionally organized veterinary reference without parody framing, or you need fully up-to-date clinical guidance given the book's 2004 publication date.
What readers & critics say
Retailer and distributor listings consistently highlight the book's dual promise of "useful diagrams and hilarious insights," with abebooks.com and vetbooks.ir both noting that Dr. Brunner and Sam Stall together provide "plenty of useful advice for both new and experienced cat owners." Penguinrandomhouse.com and vetbooks.ir emphasize the book's breadth, describing hundreds of frequently asked questions explored through step-by-step instructions and helpful schematic diagrams.
Sources: AbeBooks, VetBooks.ir, Penguin Random House, Barnes & NobleAsk LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
- Is it worth reading?
- For cat owners who appreciate humor writing that doesn't sacrifice informational value entirely for the sake of the joke, The Cat Owner's Manual delivers genuine value — Dr. Brunner's 25 years of veterinary experience and his ASPCA-accredited practice give the advice real credibility, not just a clever wrapper. The product-manual conceit creates an intuitive, browsable structure that makes locating answers to specific questions surprisingly practical. The two meaningful caveats are the 2004 publication date, which means some veterinary guidance may not reflect current best practices, and the parody framing itself, which will not work for readers who simply want a traditionally organized reference.
- Similar books
- Readers who enjoy The Cat Owner's Manual's blend of accessible advice and feline focus will find strong companions in the curated titles below. Your Cat: The Owner's Manual by Dr. Marty Becker offers veterinarian-backed cat care in a similarly approachable format. Think Like a Cat by Pam Johnson-Bennett and The Cat Behavior Answer Book by Arden Moore both go deeper on feline behavior for readers who want more than the concise, breadth-first treatment this book provides. Catification by Jackson Galaxy and Kate Benjamin takes a design-forward approach to enriching a cat's environment. And for those who came to this book through Quirk's Owner's and Instruction Manual series or simply love pet care broadly, Ferrets For Dummies by Kim Schilling offers a similarly thorough, accessible reference for a different small animal.
- Who should read this?
- The Cat Owner's Manual is best suited to cat owners — new or experienced — who want a browsable, entertaining entry point into feline behavior and basic care, and who appreciate humor writing that doesn't sacrifice informational value entirely for the sake of the joke. It is also a natural fit for readers already familiar with Quirk Books' Owner's and Instruction Manual series through The Dog Owner's Manual or other companion volumes. Readers who want a straightforward, traditionally organized veterinary reference without the product-manual parody layer, or who need the most current feline medicine guidance, are likely better served by a more recent, conventionally formatted resource.
- How is the book organized?
- The entire book is structured around the conceit that a cat is a piece of consumer technology: content is organized as operating instructions, troubleshooting tips, and schematic diagrams rather than conventional chapters. Cat behaviors become "known issues" with documented workarounds, and topics range from breed compatibility with dogs to coat care to quirky habits like drinking from the bathtub. Illustrations by Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum of Headcase Design — a Philadelphia-based studio featured in American Illustration, Communication Arts, and Print — visually reinforce the technical-manual aesthetic throughout, making the book as browsable as it is readable cover to cover.
- How credible is the veterinary advice?
- The veterinary grounding is one of the book's strongest assets: Dr. David Brunner brings 25 years of veterinary experience, having owned and operated the Broad Ripple Animal Clinic in Indianapolis for over 20 years — a practice that received the highest level of accreditation from the ASPCA, with a specialty in small animals including cats and dogs. Sam Stall's role is to translate that clinical expertise into the accessible, witty manual format, so the humor is layered over genuine credentials rather than substituted for them. The one credibility caveat is the 2004 publication date: some specific recommendations may not reflect current best practices in feline medicine, which has advanced meaningfully in the two decades since.
- Is this more funny or more useful?
- According to the editorial assessment, the humor and usefulness are genuinely integrated rather than in competition: the product-manual conceit does real organizational work, creating an intuitive browsable structure while the jokes run throughout. Dr. Brunner and Stall are described as providing "plenty of useful advice for both new and experienced cat owners" — the publisher positions it as genuinely informative rather than purely comedic. The limitation is that this integration only works for readers willing to engage with information delivered through an extended parody; those who find the framing distracting rather than charming will get less out of the reference value.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Skip if you want a straightforward, traditionally organized veterinary reference without an extended product-manual parody framing.
Editorial Review
Published by Quirk Books in 2004, The Cat Owner's Manual is a humor-infused reference guide that frames cat ownership through the conceit of a product manual — complete with schematic diagrams and step-by-step instructions — while grounding its advice in the genuine veterinary expertise of Dr. David Brunner and the accessible prose of co-author Sam Stall.
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