Dedication: For Joshua, Bridget, Jordan and Miss Olivia.
Author's note: From the time of the first chance meeting, recorded in this book, I began to keep a record of conversations with cats and of their names and places of meeting. Conversations with Cats is, therefore, a collection of dialogues with real, not made-up, cats ... Immodestly, perhaps, I have contributed poems about cats to this book. However it is the poetry by the cats that is an important and, I believe, unique contribution to the treasury of verse. (p.vii)
