Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean

The famed “Cat Daddy” from Animal Planet’s My Cat from Hell, with coauthor Derfner, has written an unconventional memoir documenting his path to sobriety and unexpected career as a cat behaviorist, with instructions and tricks for training and disciplining cats sprinkled throughout. Inspired by his years fostering, training, and eventually adopting an emotionally and physically broken cat named Benny, Galaxy vows to write a book “about how we cohealed, how we refused to let each other live broken ever after.” While Galaxy doesn’t deny his addictions to alcohol, drugs, and food, the gritty struggles of addiction are often glossed over. Instead, Galaxy focuses on the story of his career, which includes developing a consulting business called Little Big Cat, which helps cat owners manage problematic pets instead of dumping them at shelters, and thus reducing the number of cats euthanized because of space. Through his work, he finds his purpose as a “cat whisperer.” Galaxy’s candor earns the reader’s trust, without being hackneyed; he seamlessly weaves his relationship with Benny into the larger story of his life and recovery, which will appeal to a readership beyond cat lovers. Agent: Joy Tutela, David Black Literary Agency. (May)