How a feral cat helped a homeless man turn his life around

NY Post ^ | June 28, 2014 | Tricia Romano

[Slings and Arrows]

Who says only cats get nine lives? With the help of his feline friend, James Bowen has been given a few extra chances of his own.

Just a few years ago Bowen was down and out, selling copies of The Big Issue, a magazine sold by homeless people, on rainy London streets, when his fortune changed forever.

He met a stray orange kitten with an outgoing demeanor that he named Bob. The cat had an abscess on his leg, and Bowen cobbled together money for antibiotics and nursed the little kitty back to health.

“When his treatments were done and I was trying to get him to find his own way home, he just started following me, until the day he followed me onto the bus,” says Bowen.

-snip-

In 2010, Bowen published his first book, “A Street Cat Named Bob — and How He Saved My Life.” It quickly became a best-seller.

“My life is completely like a sort of ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ [story],” Bowen says from his flat in London. “Flipped upside down.”

Bowen has gone on to write four more books — three children’s titles and a new book, “The World According to Bob.”

All told, the books have sold more than one million copies and have even resulted in a movie deal: A film based on “A Street Cat Named Bob” is currently in production and has a tentative 2015 release date. Not bad for a stray cat and a guy who used to sell newspapers on the street.

“It’s crazy to [be] somebody who lived in a low-budget accommodation, a kind of hostel…now on the property ladder, and paying something called ‘income tax.’ Which seems quite exorbitant,” he says, laughing.

[Pajamajan]

What a great story :-)

[CatherineofAragon]

God bless Mr Bowen and Bob! Great story.

I love orange tiger cats. Bob is a beautiful boy, and he looks as though he’ll smack anyone who gets out of line.

[martin_fierro]

ORANGE KITTEH IZ BEST KITTEH:

Winston Churchill’s old estate has a new resident: an orange and white colored rescue cat named Jock VI. The cat is an unusual legacy of Churchill. The late British leader requested that there always be an orange cat with white chest fur, white paws and named Jock living at Chartwell, his estate in Kent, England.

[WVKayaker]

BUT, there's always another way to "skin the cat"...

[Slings and Arrows]

You’re very welcome.

[Slings and Arrows]

> That cat doesn’t look feral to me, he looks like he might be the brains of this operation.

Ssssh! They think we don’t know.

[Slings and Arrows]

Bob definitely doesn’t take kitty litter from anyone.

[Slings and Arrows]

Truly.

[GeronL]

lol

[Slings and Arrows]

Thanks!

[Slings and Arrows]

Churchill has spoken.

[Slings and Arrows]

Much obliged.

[Fred Nerks]

He’s on facebook! Almost 250 thousand ‘friends’ all over the world...

https://www.facebook.com/StreetCatBob