I bought this book from Books A Million in Old Alexandria at the BCinDC convention - they were having a sale and I wanted it for another release copy! It's about a lost kitten and her adventures...

Later: Oh, this is cute! Possibly only to cat-people, as it focuses so intently on the details of a kitten's life, from the cuddly-adorable bits to the frantic/scary/annoying ones - but I'm definitely a cat-people {grin} and I kept giggling and AWWWW-ing and chuckling and occasionally bursting into guffaws.

From the beginning, the bitter/sweet mix is very clear; our young kitten/heroine is out strolling with her mother and littermates, gets distracted by a butterfly, and winds up alone, lost, and increasingly terrified. A young child and his parents find her and take her home, and at first she's so happy to be warm and well-fed that she relaxes - but as soon as her terror subsides she remembers her mother and scrambles around the apartment looking for a way out. [This forget/remember cycle will repeat for a while, but - another bittersweet note - the intervals of remembering will come farther and farther apart, though they still bubble up once in a while even in the second book.]

Each episode features some small aspect of the kitten's life, from her first bath (anyone who's ever tried to bathe a cat will empathize with both sides here!) to her Adventures With Litterbox Training to bouts of scratching at any door that's closed. Oh, and there's an especially touching episode in which the family discusses how to find a new home for the kitten, as their apartment complex doesn't allow pets; the kitten's napping and starts to have nightmares about the scary dogs and cars and whatnot from when she was lost, and as she twitches in her sleep the father gently pets her, wondering what she's thinking about. We see her nightmares change to dreams of being cared for by her mother, as she relaxes and starts to purr... And just as I'm getting a little teary about all this, the bemused father watches the sleeping kitten and tells the family that they pretty much have to keep her. Ha!

There's a bit about the kitten's overenthusiastic use of claws while playing, leading the little boy to observe that "Cats are scary" - but it isn't long before they figure out how to play more safely, and they become great friends.

And then there's the purchased-cat-toys-vs-the-bag-they-came-in episode, and the first-trip-to-the-vet episode (the poor dad had to take the brunt of Chi's outrage after that, and worked long and hard to woo her back). And many more, all of them true to Life With Cats.

[See its TV Tropes page here. And I found that there's an anime version (done in very, very short segments), viewable online here.]

Updated to add links to the other volumes I've bought so far:

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

I'm leaving this cute little book at the book buffet at the convention - gotta get more manga out there!

Taken from the 2011 Convention Book Buffet. What an adorable kitty. This will be my first Manga.

Chi is the sweetest kitty! I loved the way all her reactions and emotions (very human but also easily recognizable if you've lived with a cat) were illustrated. Adorable. The way she "talks" is so cute, substituting "w" for "r" or "l" as in "Let's pway" (this refers to "play", not "pray", though she might feel like praying at times ;-), or "that was scarewy!"

Let's see, are there any more adjectives meaning "cute", "adorable", "sweet" that I've missed?!

Don't know why I waited almost a year (yikes! sorry!) to read it.

There's not much more to add to Gory's very comprehensive review :-). Thanks for sharing this at the convention!

Added to Mary Zee's Cat Stories Bookbox which was mailed to 6of8 today.

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Too cute a kitty, so I had to pick the book from the box. I'm not a manga fan, but this kitty just looks adorable... :)

Awwww... I'm not a manga person, but I loved this little kitty adventure. It just captures the essence of a kitty so very well, and follows little kitty adventures just adorably. Just very cute.

Packed with a few Icelandic crime stories to Beth (who likes good crime stories and everything kittenlicious in books) - enjoy :)

Safe journey little book - I hope you'll make many new friends on your travels!

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Oh yes, I'm a kittylover for sure! Will read this then pass it along to my equally-cat-loving sister, Moody-Blue :)

I agree with aetm, I'm not a manga fan, either, but this didn't feel too manga-like :) The little kitty was so cute, and I loved the story being told from her perspective (what things are soft, happy, scary, etc.). Quick little cute read :)

Will pass along to my sister when I see her in a week or two.

This looks adorable!!

Absolutely precious! Am I wrong to love the vet scene? :) I would be happy to keep following the further adventures of sweet little Chi.