Snowflake in my Hand is an older book published in the early 1980s, which tells the story of Samantha Mooney’s (the author) experience with different cats in the oncology ward of an animal hospital. Snowflake in my Hand is a cat book that came before the other cat books that you might recognize like Dewey or Homer.
This rather short book tells the story of the experiences that Samantha has while working in the oncology ward of an animal hospital. Her ward primarily dealt with cats and so it is cats that featured in her tails. The strange thing about the plot in this book is that it is not centered around her own kitties, she ends up with five by the end of the book, but it is the kitties she sees on a daily basis during her duties in the ward that affect her most.
Samantha tells the stories of many cats who were relinquished by their owners to the ward and fewer of special owners in their cats who has the unfortunate experience of being a patient at the cancer ward. Her stories feature bold cats who won the hearts of the entire ward such as Clancy, little black timid cats who would only let her handle them such as Fledermaus, and Oliver Cromwell who summered in Maine and had a seagull for a friend. More importantly at a time when people did really regard cats as family, she weaves a story about dedicated medical professionals who did their best to give these kitties a quality of life that they deserved. She also delves into the loss that surrounds losing a pet and how hard it is for those who really care about their pets to lose one and how we are not allowed to really grieve over the loss of a pet. She also shows us how the love of a cat can help us get over the loss of a loved one. Her tales are really touching. Get a Kleenex you are going to need it for this book.
This book has several things I like, and a few things I didn’t like. I love the fact it is told by a woman who worked closely with cats in the 1980s. I love that she tells the stories of these amazing cats that rallied throughout their sickness to touch those around them. I love that it touches on the themes of love and loss, and the grief over a pet and other loved ones and how we support and sometimes don’t support the ones we love. And how sometimes we are selfish when we want pets to live for our sake and not because they have a good quality of life left.
What I didn’t like about the book is that it didn’t seem to flow well. The story seemed a bit disjointed and I was never sure where we were in the timeline or how many days or years had passed between one cat story and the next. We also got a lot of information about Samantha returning to school but we never got any background on her, like where was she from and how did she end up at the Animal Hospital. I wanted more background on her and her cats. And I would have liked a more linear storyline. It seems if you distilled the book’s plot that it would be mostly about the little black cat Fledermaus or the Maus as she called her which is a timid black kitty that Samantha had for two years that helped her with the loss of her father. I believe it is the Maus who is the Snowflake for which the book is titled. But that is only a short portion of the tale that we receive and it seems as though the writer lost her focus somewhere in the middle of the tale. I would have also like a more definitive ending. You sort of reach the end of the book and go, oh, is that it? It is a wonderful story that would have perhaps benefitted from the help of a professional writer.
That said, I did enjoy reading this book and for the cat lover who has already read the newer cat books like Dewey, Homer, and Oscar it is a good gap filler until the next cat book comes out.