Clandestine Cat: The Secret Life of Walter Kitty by Barbara Hicks

Like James Thurber's classic protagonist Walter Mitty, Walter Kitty leads a secret life of danger, adventure, and predatory power in Barbara Hicks' new book, The Secret Life of Walter Kitty.

Although his Person, Mrs. Biddle, a true feline fancier, calls him "Wally," "Kitten," and even "Snookums Baby," (while her husband calls him "THAT CAT,"), in his imaginative inner life, Walter is "Fang," a cat of great derring do, a caped crusader, an Indiana Jones-like adventurer, a pirating Captain Fang, a King Kong Kat, towering over the landscape of lesser creatures.

Not that he doesn't have his dutiful domestic side! Walter devotedly helps Mrs. Biddle as he dusts the bric-a-brac with his versatile tail, sweeps the floor with his chubby rear, and "washes" the dishes and floor with his "super-duper-self-clean-scrub-brush tongue."

After all, even a mouse-terrorizing tiger has to compromise to get some breakfast, cop some catnip, and find his way to a soft lap and some serious chin-scritching by Mrs. Biddle.

Like Nick Bruel's Bad Kitty, (reviewed here April 1) Walter Kitty is a cat of two minds, part cuddly kitty, part terrible Tom. As both he's a funny, far-out feline that anyone who knows cats will recognize.