Review: Paws for a Moment

I’ve read a lot of cat memoirs over the years. I even wrote my own. But I’ve not come across anything resembling Paws for a Moment. Zohar Kohavi shares the profound relationship he shared with his cat Cato for 21 years through a series of vignettes, essays and poems. This is a small book, but it packs quite an emotional punch.

This is not a traditional memoir, narrating a cat’s life in a linear fashion. Kohavi simply recalls the moments that make up a life: the routines, the comforts, the special rituals we all have with our cats, and the slow changes that come with age. Anyone who has ever loved a cat will recognize their own relationships with cats, both past and present.

The brief, often poetic chapters suit the subject beautifully. Grief and love rarely follow a neat narrative arc. They come in flashes: a certain look, the weight of a body on your chest, the way the house sounds different when a cat is no longer in it. Kohavi captures those flashes with such clarity that more than once, I had to put the book down to let the tears flow, because it brought back memories of my own soul cats.

He writes about watching Cato age with a brutal honesty that isn’t sentimental, but yet, almost poetic at times. By allowing the tough times to sit alongside the joyful and peaceful ones without trying to soften them, it makes the love that is the center of this book shine even brighter.

Kohavi’s writing is luminous in its simplicity. Writing, for him, became a way of of holding on to Cato, of honoring the bond that doesn’t end just because a life does. I’ve often shared here  how grateful I am for all the memories captured in Ruby’s column on this website, and I could relate deeply.

Paws for a Moment is a tender, contemplative book. It’s a book about grief, both anticipatory and conventional. And it becomes a love story that transcends time by honoring the inevitable sadness that comes with watching a beloved cat age, and ultimately losing him. This book is for anyone who has ever experienced the quiet, life-changing connection with a soul cat, especially toward the end of that cat’s life. It’s a tender book, contemplative, and full of heart.

This is the kind of book you want to read slowly, savoring each small truth as it unfolds. It’s the kind of book that will have you looking at your own cats or your memories of them with more softness, and it will remind you to treasure the sacredness of small moments.

Paws for a Moment is available from Amazon.

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