Jennifer de Klerk: By sheer coincidence I received a copy of Cat Therapy for review on the same day that I was told my cancer had returned, a year after my last chemotherapy treatment. At first I could not respond to Gail Gilbride’s sparklingly upbeat diary entries and the line drawings of Archie the cat that gamboled through the pages.

I put the book aside.

A couple of weeks later, when I had got my head around my own situation, I picked up Cat Therapy again and found I had been thrown a lifeline across the abyss. Gail, a ditzy extrovert who loves to party (her description), was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2019.

Supported by friends and family, and always one to tackle life head-on, she unleashed not only the big guns of Western medicine, but also supplementary treatments from homeopathy to hypnotherapy, music and art therapy, diet and cannabis oil … and cat therapy. From the day of her diagnosis, Archie, her half-feral marmalade tom cat, usually occupied with defending his territory and causing havoc among the mice, birds and squirrels, adopted her.

The darker the tunnel, the dimmer the light at the end of it, the more present was Archie, checking in constantly, sharing love bites and head knocks, massages, fish and milky tea, teaching her patience and anchoring her to reality.

Halfway through her treatment the Covid-19 pandemic hit. For Gail, as for many of us, lockdown and isolation were a time of introspection. Her breezy colloquial style, so frank and honest, becomes more sombre, more thoughtful, but even when she has to crawl, she never loses sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Jubilation, she achieved it. Cancer free, the goal of us all!

Now, as my own time of trial starts yet again, I turn to Cat Therapy and laugh at the delightful line drawings of Archie in every possible pose a cat can achieve – and they are many!

I have my own cat therapy. As I throw myself on the bed, exhausted by a simple shopping expedition, a little grey tabby opens her green eyes, uncurls from her nest on the blanket, and settles beside me, stretching out a velvet paw. I hold it and we purr together.

No matter what the future holds, I am not alone. Thank you, Gail. Thank you, Archie.

Cat Therapy
Gail Gilbride
ISBN 978-0-6397-5037-8