Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat
Illustrator: Janet Wilson
Picture Book
For ages 6 to 9
Tundra, 1998 ISBN: 978-0887763977
Daffy was just a little kitten when he first met Maud. Maud picked him out of a litter saying the “only real cat is a gray cat” and soon Daffy was her much loved companion. Daffy would sit with Maude while she wrote or typed, he would go for walks with her when she went out to take photographs, and he would wait for her when she went on her long rambles through the countryside.
Maude’s grandmother did not like cats but Daffy never let that bother him. So long as he had Maude he was happy and he did his best to make sure that she was happy, comforting her when publishers rejected her stories again and again by. Indeed on one occasion he reminded her of a manuscript that she had set aside, lying on the stack of papers until she condescended to pick up the papers beneath him. Maude decided to send the manuscript out again and this time it was accepted. The story “Anne of Green Gables” was her first success.
This is a warm and loving account of the relationship which Lucy Maud Montgomery had with her beloved cat Daffy. As so many people well know, pets can offer comfort when no one else can, and Maud fully appreciated the friendship and love of her Cavendish cat. Indeed she had him shipped, shrieking much of the way, to Ontario when she moved there after she got married. This is a true story and it captures a very special part of the story of one of Canada’s most famous writers.
