The Cat Who Went to Paris

by Peter Gethers

Published 3 September 1991
The Cat Who Went to Paris introduces the world to Norton, an extraordinary animal whose feline charms, and unique relationship with the author, will delight cat lovers--and even cat haters--everywhere.

Peter Aethers is surprised one day when his girlfriend presents him with a small, furry gray kitten, soon named Norton. Sensing immediately that he will have no trouble wrapping the cosmopolitain book editor and screenwriter around his little paw, Norton sets about taking over Geters's apartment--and life.

Soon Norton begins to travel the globe, first on short trips to Fire Island, where he learns to take long walks on the beach, then to Paris (via the Concorde, of course), where the staff at the ritzy Tremoille Hotel tends to his every whim, and then to other exotic and normally uncatlike places. Along the way he encounters such diversions as Rotisserie League Baseball, the Fire Island summer social scene, a Dutch quiz show, an irate cat-hating stewardess, even kadima, "The Stupidest Game Ever Invented." Norton dictates Gethers's real estate buying, clearly indicates his feelings about a certain Danish fashion model, becomes friends with Roman Polanski, and makes a less-than-favorable first impression on Harrison Ford. Through it all, Norton takes in the world around him with an air of benevolent amusement not generally associated with those of the feline persuasion and has a profound effect on all who come in contact with him.
--front flap

A Cat Abroad

by Peter Gethers

Published 31 August 1993
In A Cat Abroad, Peter Gethers recounts the further adventures of Norton, the extraordinary cat with the great Scottish Fold ears, who finds new worlds and people to conquer. Norton, who charmed even the most avowed cat haters with his antics in the best-selling The Cat Who Went to Paris, now hightails it to the south of France - stopping off all over Europe along the way - for a year with his favorite human.As always, Norton astounds those around him with his calm, uncatlike demeanor and succeeds in becoming the object of everyone's affections. In America, Norton goes on the TV talk-show circuit, finds himself on the "A" list of desirable celebrities who stay at the ultra-chic Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, and is the star of a party at Spago, where superstar chef Wolfgang Puck presents him with a Pounce pizza.

When Norton and Peter tour the Continent, Norton leaves his mark on Paris, where he encounters five not-so-friendly dogs and a devious chef; Italy, where he almost starts a war over an uneaten sardine; Holland, where he tours the canals; the Swiss Alps, where he has his first raclette dinner; and, of course, Provence, where over the course of a year he hikes in the mountains, makes friends with a goatherder (and his goats), dines in three-star restaurants, and, generally, becomes the most recognizable new inhabitant of the area since Peter Mayle decided to leave London.

Along the way, Norton and his human companion face change and learn to understand the problems and the pleasures that come with growing up and growing older together. Like its predecessor, A Cat Abroad is funny, touching, and wise.
--jacket