Strays: A Lost Cat, a Homeless Man, and Their Journey Across America
By: Britt Collins / Foreward By: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson / Narrated By: George Newbern
Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
How caring for the less fortunate can open the heart
One rainy night, a very drunk Michael King stumbles across a beaten up little girl of a cat. He uses his nightly alcohol money to buy her some food and milk, takes care of her wounds, and gives her a place to sleep in his sleeping bag, thinking she’ll be off in the morning.
Little Taber stays.
And thus we have Strays, a wonderful story of a down-and-out man who’s been running from grief coming to care for and love a lost cat.
The greatest weakness of the story is probably George Newbern’s narration. Well, not so much the narration as the fact that his voice is so smooth as to sound like a radio news anchorman. Kinda so smooth that I dozed off a couple of times, but that’s just me. At least he puts emotion into his performance, but I sort of expected a voice that was rougher around the edges to go with a guy living on the streets. But like I said, Newbern delivers the emotional impact, so what more can one ask of a story? I did, after all, wind up with a lump in my throat every now and then, and that all has to do with a good delivery.
The two, King and Taber, get into all sorts of scrapes: coyotes, bears, stampeding cattle. There are snowstorms, raging rainy gales, and heat without shade. This is the story of their journey together. And Michael does what he can to protect Taber, using most of the money from his panhandling to care for her and to see to her needs.
It sort of reminded me of A Street Cat Named Bob in that Michael, as a homeless man, is utterly invisible to society, a nuisance to be ignored… until he shows up as a man who loves a cat. Then many in society see him and open their hearts to both him and Taber and offer support. An animal can really make the public smile.
The story also follows Taber’s original owner, Ron, as he tries to navigate the days without her (he knows her by the name of Mata). While Taber/Mata is living as a hitchhiking drifter, Ron is grieving endlessly and seeking psychics to try to find out what’s become of his precious buddy. He’s driven to despair, but he never gives up. I must admit, though, that I thought him a tad creepy by his response to Taber’s situation when her microchip is scanned and he discovers that a homeless guy has had her. He doesn’t seem to have much sympathy or trust in Michael, doesn’t seem to show as much gratitude as he should for the care and protection Michael has given her, the sacrifices that he’s made for the little girl cat. I dunno, Ron just seemed a bit too angst ridden when he should’ve shown more compassion.
I wish Strays had more of an epilogue to it. There is one, but I really, really was hoping to hear more about Michael’s life post-Taber. He seemed so distraught after losing the initial love of his life that I worried that losing Taber may’ve caused additional setbacks. After all, even though he cut back his alcohol consumption when he had her, he still drank, still got falling-down drunk several times, so I worried about how he managed without having her by his side to care for.
Strays really shows life on the streets as a harsh reality, doesn’t pretty it up in the slightest. But also shows the homeless as people just struggling to get along and just struggling to find good in their days/lives. Taber had many a friend in that group of people; she had much love in her life while she was on the streets. Should something horrible like losing one of my beloved fuzzies ever happen to me, I pray that someone as noble as Michael King is there to step in, loving the whole time.
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