Women Using Book to Help People and Animals

Following the 2004 election, Cathy Conheim and her partner Dr. Donna Brooks were driving to their home, feeling discouraged about current events. There were “dog people” but when they arrived home they discovered a three-month-old kitten living on their property that had been injured badly. Off to the vet they sped with their young charge. An amputation was necessary to save the kitten’s life and they were told that he could no longer be an outdoor cat.

They ended up adopting “Henry” and there ensued an incredible journey.

Conheim started writing about the cat’s adventures as much for her own healing regarding some bad news politically as for anything else. She sent them to 20 people who sent them on, and today, Henry The Cat has 2,300 emails in “his” letterbox in the sky.

“My cat, Rhett Butler became one of Henry’s teachers and correspondents,” said Conheim and Brooks’ friend Robin Tyler. “Animals have a unique way of getting animals to talk on a heart level. With their loving eyes, their forgiving play, and their constant loyalty they make it possible for people to open up on a deeper level of trust and intimacy.”

Last year Henry’s adventures of his first two months of life and letters to him became a book: Henry’s World: A Three-Legged Cat’s View of Human Absurdity, an email Odyssey.

“Conheim and Brooks are donating all of the profits from the book to help animals who do so much healing for us,” said Tyler. “Henry’s World is not a book about a cat as much as it is a treasury of stories about how we survive our wounds, as told through a wounded kitty. It is a book about transforming tragedy into possibility. Henry reminds us that we are defined not by our misfortunes but by our responses to them. Henry’s stories are the visions and innocence of an outdoor kitty put into a totally foreign place after the loss of his front leg. His story touches friends and strangers around the world, many of whom confide in him their own setbacks and tales of survival.”

All proceeds will go to P.A.W.S. (Pets Are Wonderful Support), a volunteer-based group which helps people with AIDS and others with disabilities to keep their pets.

Tyler said Henry’s book was designed as a healing tool as well as a means to fundraise for animals in need. The intent is to get the books in the hands of wounded humans, paralyzed, amputees, and people who have suffered great loss, she said.

“If everyone would order a book and perhaps think about using it as a holiday gift I promise you that it will bring you many smiles,” said Tyler.

For more information, go to henrysworld.org.

When you go to the website and order the book at the shop, put P.A.W.S. in the comments section.

“Cathy has a goal of raising a million dollars for the animals who love and heal us,” said Tyler.