The Cat Who Came for Christmas

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book was "utterly delightful and humorous, and a treasure for anyone who's ever been 'owned by a cat.'"^[3]

Publishers Weekly wrote: "Amory offers an entertaining, if precious, re-creation of his first year with Polar Bear (his account of selecting a name takes 20 pages)."^[4]

Mary Daniels in Chicago Tribune wrote, "Amory makes seamless transitions between what might otherwise be unrelated material by using Polar Bear as a sub-theme throughout the book."^[2]

The first edition was #8 on the New York Times bestseller list on November 29, 1987.^[5] It spent 20 weeks on the list.^[6] The 1988 paperback edition was #3 on the New York Times bestseller list on October 30, 1988.^[7] It reached #1,^[8] remaining in that place for 5 weeks.^[9] New York Times listed it as the #5 top paperback nonfiction book of 1988.^[10] The paperback returned to the New York Times bestseller list in fall 1988 at #3,^[11] the next month reaching #1.^[12]

The audiobook is read by Alan Sklar.^[13]

The Cat Who Came for Christmas has two sequels:

• The Cat and the Curmudgeon. Little, Brown & Company, 1990. ISBN 978-0-517-20861-8^[14]
• The Best Cat Ever. Little, Brown & Company, 1993. ISBN 0-316-03744-3^[15]

The three books were published in one volume in 1995 under the title The Compleat Cat.^[16]