"When I am falling apart, I simply look at one or more of my cats. I have 9. I just look at one sleeping or half asleep and I calm down. Writing is also my cat. Writing allows me to face things. It relaxes me."

Texts by Charles Bukowski, funny, touching, sometimes harsh and sometimes tender, about the cats whose penetrating gaze enchanted him, whom he admired and bowed to in their perception. Poems and prose about cats - these "beautiful devils," as he called them - which present them in their most ruthless and resilient side: they are hunters, they are fighters and they do everything to survive, they inspire awe and earn respect, just as they stubbornly cling to life. Perhaps that's why Bukowski considered these creatures his lifelong teachers.

A rough, yet tender and funny look at the relationship between humans and cats from one of the world's most beloved and boundary-pushing writers.

"The cat is only ITSELF. It represents the strong forces of LIFE that never give up."