I would not have finished this book if it wasn't our book club pick. It's much too long, padded with unnecessary detail. The 222 pages could have easily been condensed into one. And by "one" I mean "one sentence": Oscar the cat resides at a long term care facility and can sense when people are about to die and lies down next to them at that time. That's it. The rest is a lot of sentimental stuff. If you like having your heartstrings purposely and egregiously yanked, this is the perfect book for you. I'm cold-hearted and unsentimental so it's the wrong book for me. (My heartstrings are more attuned to the people who die cold, alone, sick, in poverty, of starvation, of torture.)