We'll Prescribe You a Cat

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Cats can solve most problems.”

A series of connected stories about the therapeutic power of cats, even when they are ripping up your important paperwork, meowing all night, sleeping on your face, ignoring you, wrestling with each other, eating plants they shouldn’t, and sneaking out into the night. Each of the people who come into the mysterious clinic are dealing with some heavy life issues and think talking to a professional will help. They’re not wrong, but none of them expects what he prescribes - a specific number of days, each with a particular cat. Somehow, this doctor and his nurse know exactly who needs help and what cat will help them best. Maybe it’s magic, or maybe it’s intuition? It’s not until the last story that we start to get a picture of what exactly has been going on here. (Though it’s still not exactly clear haha.)

It was stressful to be in most of these characters heads - they were sad and frustrated and lonely and angry and just generally discontented with life. But that dismal headspace did provide for a radical translation once they spent some time with their cats. Each person was able to gain a new perspective on life, started treating themselves and those around them with more kindness, and most ended up adopting a cuddly companion, either their prescribed cat or another, if theirs wasn’t available.

Of course, the overarching story is who exactly is this doctor and why do they have doppelgängers wandering around the city? I loved what we ended up discovering about these two, though their story did make me quite sad. There’s truly nothing like a cat, especially one you are deeply connected to.


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