Do you think your feline friend needs to get a job and pull their own weight for their cat food, toys, treats and kitty litter? Well, author Ann Dziemianowicz has the solution for you! This self-proclaimed feline career counselor who assists cats in landing their dream jobs, has written Careers For Your Cat. The premise of this light-hearted look at feline careers is to enable owners to “sit back, relax, and take a well-earned cat nap.”
In the early 1990s as her bank account took a down turn, the author decided to acquaint her beloved feline companions with the hard reality of want ads, resumes and interviews. She felt her fifteen-plus years of experience as a career counselor and career coach gave her an insight into what her own feline family needed to be looking at.
After developing her unique methods, she has applied this expertise to thousands of now satisfied feline 9 to 5ers, which get up every morning to face the day and the “rat race” we all know in some form or another. She interviews owners and their felines, and after specific testing is able to point the previously wayward house cats to a life of fulfillment in their given professions.
She developed the “Meowers-Briggs Career/Personality Test” that is comprised of two parts. The test should be given after a meal in an area free of distractions to give your cat the opportunity to answer the questions to the best of their ability. It is suggested that the cat pick the answer most like themselves, but it is permissible to give as many as two answers to each question.
Part one has sixteen questions that ask a cat questions like: What is your favorite activity? Where do you prefer to sleep? What do you enjoy playing with? It finds out about a cat’s dining preferences, what they do when they see a mouse and what happens when they are greeted by a dog. These questions are designed to find out a cat’s career type. You can find out if your cat has traits that are creative, labor-intensive, intellectual or an inert introvert.
Part two of the “Meowers-Briggs Career/Personality Test” determines a cat’s personality type and is comprised of two sub-parts. By answering true or false to the options listed you are able to determine your cat’s personality. Depending on your cat’s answers to this part you are able to determine if your cat is an introvert or extravert. After your cat completes the test you can view career options for each of the seven career/personality combinations available.
There are seven categories your cat may fit into and thirty-four total careers listed for them. For example, if your cat is an intellectual introvert, they are defined as abstract thinkers with high IQs, they value loyalty and quiet, spend hours in silent reflection and prefer to work behind the scenes for effective results. Careers available for them include librarian, marine biologist, psychotherapist and private investigator. To further define if this career would be a good fit for your cat there is a list of traits which define each career opportunity. Last but not least there are tips included for your cat to ace their interview.
Careers for Your Cat is an easy read for anyone who loves felines. At only 96 pages, it is short enough to retain any young person’s attention, and they will love the illustrations. Adults will love the wry sense of humor the author utilizes when describing the varied careers for cats.
Before writing this book, Ann Dziemianowicz was an Advertising Manager at Simon and Schuster, and more recently she was the Assistant Director of Publications and a Senior Writer at Stevens Institute. Her own cats have had various careers. Her cat Milton is a cabaret singer, Fella is a restaurant pastry cook, and Bibsy is a private detective.
The illustrator, Ann Boyajian, has several previously published books to her credit. She lives and works with her husband and cats near Boston. She credits her four-footed feline models for the inspiration of her sophisticated, elegant graphics which reveal her wry wit.
So pour yourself a beverage, curl up in your favorite reading spot and take a look at career seeking felines who aren’t afraid to assist their human companions by pulling their own weight.
Read more articles by Ruthie Bently
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