Left Behind: Lost Cat by C. Roger Mader

EVER SINCE SLIPPER WAS A TINY KITTEN, SHE'D LIVED WITH A LITTLE OLD LADY IN A LITTLE OLD HOUSE IN A LITTLE OLD TOWN.

LIFE WAS GOOD.

In fact, it's perfect for a cat.  Slipper shares her days with Mrs. Fuzzy Slippers, and at night she sleeps on her own little rug, curled around the lady's fluffy slippers beside her bed.

But then Mrs. Fluffy Slippers has to pack up to move in with her daughter.  Everything in her house in turned topsy turvy and loaded into a van, and in the way of  cats Slipper makes herself inconspicuous.  So, when the moving van pulls away from the little house, Slipper is not in it.

SLIPPER CHASED THE MOVING VAN FOR MILES AND MILES.

FINALLY SHE GOT TIRED AND LOST THE TRAIL.

Although Mrs. Fuzzy Slippers hurries back to look for her, the little house is empty and Slipper is gone.

Slipper spends the coldest night of her life hiding in the woods, but the next morning she resolutely sets out to find a new home, a person to adopt.

She wanders onto a farm, where a sturdy Ms. Muddy Boots feeds her, but when her barky dog chases her out of the farmyard, Slipper knows she has to keep looking.

Mrs. Iron Shoes on her horse clops by, but Slipper is wisely wary of the horse's dangerous-looking feet. Mr. Cowboy Boots at the truck stop invites her into his noisy semi, but the fumes and commotion give her pause. When an over-eager kid, High Tops, makes a grab for her, Slipper flees to the safety of a tree branch above his reach.  Mr. Big Boots strokes her and gives her a lift to town in the saddle bags of his big red motorbike, but Slipper knows that a rip-roaring life on the road is not for her.

But on the sidewalks of the town, Slipper spots a pair of Mary Janes and follows Miss Shiny Shoes home, a home which she discovers is the one she has been looking for all along.

"GRANDMA, LOOK WHO FOLLOWED ME HOME!"

The truth of the old saying that cats choose their people, not the other way around, is the theme of Roger Mader's Lost Cat (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). In a simple, easy-flowing narration, Mader's story is brought to life in his captivating cat's-eye-view illustrations in which Slipper is shown in all her feline charms but humans are only portrayed by their ankles and footgear. The artist uses soft, full-bleed drawings done in pastels to show the texture of the fuzzy slippers and the protagonist kitty's fur to best advantage. But Slipper's supple but subtle body language itself tells the story, in this lost-and-found cat tale that kitty lovers will welcome and which may melt even a dog lover's heart.