Call of the Cats ― What I Learned About Life and Love from a Feral Colony

When Andrew Bloomfield moved into a modest bungalow in Southern California he was only vaguely aware that a colony of feral cats inhabited the deep foliage behind his new home. After one particularly poignant experience, he felt he had no choice but to intercede. So began the saga of Andrew’s dramatic relationship with this group of skittish, wild, and sometimes fierce felines. He began to name, nurse, feed, house, rescue, and neuter them. He rose from his bed in the middle of countless nights to fend off their attackers and maxed out credit cards paying vet bills and emergency room hospital visits when he was mauled by the very cats he was trying to help. Over the years he became deeply enmeshed in the colony’s births and deaths, rivalries and alliances, cliques and outcasts. It was thankless task, with no expectation of reward.

Andrew was an aspiring screenwriter but his career was going nowhere. He had spent considerable time at the feet of spiritual teachers in India and Nepal, but was uncertain how to apply what he had learned to the world of nature at her most savage. These cats wouldn’t allow humans to touch them. They ran from voices or movement. They didn’t make eye contact. They didn’t purr. These were not abandoned, domesticated cats, these were wild animals untamed and, for the most part, untamable. Thinking he was saving the colony, in the end it was the cats who saved him. By opening his heart and home to these untamed creatures he found meaning in his life that couldn’t be matched by the glitter of Hollywood.

Call of the Cats is a heartwarming tale of one man’s journey from self-absorption to selflessness that is sure to appeal not only to cat lovers but to pet owners the world over. It is also an exploration of the world we live in but rarely see,” how our lives overlap with the lives of other creatures, and how such things as names and sibling relationships cross species and continents. Andrew learned that spiritual lessons surround us, no matter where we are and what we do, if we simply stop and learn. He also discovered the joy and satisfaction in helping even one living being to a better life and the solace that comes from another living being, no matter what the circumstances.

A long time student of spiritual practices, Andrew Bloomfield lived for two years in Nepal where he translated a 17th century guidebook of spiritual sites in the Kathmandu Valley from Tibetan. He has worked as assistant manager and book buyer for East West Books in Manhattan and for Snow Lion Publications in Ithaca, NY. He wroteLearning Practical Tibetan (Snow Lion, now in its 3rd printing). In Seattle, he opened his own bookstore, Infinity Books, in Pioneer Square, where he hosted many public events, including appearances by renowned Tibetan lamas, Hindu saints, and Zen masters. He moved to Los Angeles to work with a Vedic astrologer from India and wrote How to Practice Vedic Astrology with CD-ROM for HarperCollins, which was subsequently sold to Inner Traditions’ Destiny Imprint.