Margie Knows Cats
Margie HollisTwenty years in a shelter cat room

Your cat has been telling you things all day. Here is what they mean, and what to do.

Hello, friend. I'm Margie. The Cat Room Manual is forty-six short, large-print lessons from twenty years in a shelter cat room: the tail, the meow, the litter box, food, a safe and clean house, play, a second cat, an old cat. Every chapter says what you're seeing, what it usually means and what to do, and tells you plainly when it's time to telephone the vet.

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229large-print pages
46chapters, each one a single trouble
7-daymoney-back promise
The Cat Room Manual: 46 Plain Lessons for a Happy Cat and an Easy House, by Margie Hollis. A large-print manual.
Largeprint
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“A dog's tail talks to everybody. A cat's tail
talks to whoever is paying attention.”

Start with what's bothering you

Find your trouble. Turn to that page.

You don't have to read the manual front to back. Here are the things people ask me about most, and the chapter where each one is answered.

A grey tabby and a tortoiseshell cat sitting side by side on a windowsill, looking out at a garden
Pickle, on the left, is fourteen. Juniper is six. They agree about the window and very little else.
My cat has stopped using the litter boxChapter 16The Cat Room Manual The whole house smells of the litter boxChapter 14The Cat Room Manual Litter ends up scattered across the floorChapter 15The Cat Room Manual She wakes me at three in the morningChapter 11The Cat Room Manual He is always hungry and always askingChapter 19The Cat Room Manual They scratch the sofa instead of the postChapter 31The Cat Room Manual There's cat hair on everythingChapter 30The Cat Room Manual I can't tell what the tail and the ears are sayingChapters 1 and 2The Cat Room Manual My two cats don't get alongChapters 17 and 43The Cat Room Manual Is it all right to leave them for a weekend?Chapter 41The Cat Room Manual My old cat has slowed downChapter 45The Cat Room Manual How do I know when to call the vet?Chapter 46The Cat Room Manual

I am not a veterinarian, and the manual is not about treating a cat. Wherever a cat's body comes into it, the chapter tells you when to telephone your vet.

01Why I wrote it down

Most people were doing it right. Nobody had told them what they were looking at.

In twenty years at my county shelter, the same people who took a cat home on Thursday telephoned a month later with a question. Why does she do that with her tail? Why has he stopped using his box? Am I doing this wrong? They hardly ever were. So I wrote the answers down the way Mrs. Pruitt taught them to me in the cat room: one trouble at a time, in plain words.

Margie at her kitchen table writing with a pen, a grey tabby and a tortoiseshell cat sitting either side of her
At the kitchen table. Pickle supervises anything that involves a pen.

Every chapter, the same five steps

So you can find your place in it quickly.

  1. What you're seeing. The behavior itself, described so you know we mean the same thing.
  2. What it usually means. What I've learned from watching, with the guessing left out.
  3. What to do. Numbered steps, in the order I'd do them.
  4. The cat room rule. The whole chapter in a sentence, for the refrigerator door.
  5. That's a vet visit. Which changes mean “telephone today” and which mean “now, tonight.”

What you won't find in it

I left these out on purpose.

  1. No diagnoses and no remedies. I'm a librarian. That is your veterinarian's department.
  2. No recipes. No homemade food, litter, sprays or cures.
  3. No statistics I can't stand behind. If I'm not sure, I say “ask your vet.”
  4. No kneeling, climbing or heavy lifting. Every job has a seated way to do it.
  5. No scolding. Whatever you've been doing, plenty of people do it and nobody told them.

Forty-six lessons. One trouble at a time.

See the manual · $19 →
02The books

Eight parts, forty-six chapters. And two smaller books for later.

All three are set in large type, in plain English, with short sections you can read a page at a time. The manual is the one to start with.

The Cat Room Manual
The manual · 229 pages · 46 chapters

The Cat Room Manual

46 Plain Lessons for a Happy Cat and an Easy House

My three laws, and everything the cat room taught me, sorted by the trouble that brought you here.

  • 1
    Reading Your CatThe tail · ears, eyes and whiskers · the slow blink · the cat who wants to be left alone
  • 2
    What They're SayingMeows · purring · chirps · hissing · the three-in-the-morning concert
  • 3
    The Litter BoxThe box · how many and where · smell · scatter · when a cat stops using it · ✎ What Changed?
  • 4
    Food and WaterReading a label · mealtimes · the water bowl · treats · changing foods · what a cat must never eat
  • 5
    A Safe HousePlants · the kitchen · string · windows and doors · the garage · ✎ My Safety Walk
  • 6
    A Clean House With CatsHair · scratching · smells · accidents · ✎ My Ten-Minute Evening · visitors
  • 7
    Play and the Indoor LifeThe wand and the hunt · perches · free toys · the bored cat · leaving for a day or a weekend
  • 8
    Living TogetherA new cat's first week · a second cat · stress · the older cat · ✎ Before I Telephone the Vet

✎ marks a page you fill in. The four fill-in pages also come as separate one-page printables.

The Cat Care Plan
Fill-in planner · 58 pages

The Cat Care Plan

If I Can't Be There

Ten short chapters of me talking, each followed by the pages where you do the talking. Those pages are the part that matters.

  • 1
    Why a Plan MattersStart Tonight
  • 2
    Choosing Your Cat's PersonMy Cat's People · What We Agreed
  • 3
    The First 48 HoursThe First 48 Hours sheet
  • 4
    Your Cats on PaperCat Profile (two copies)
  • 5
    The Home SheetThe Home Sheet
  • 6
    Who to CallEmergency Contacts
  • 7
    Money Set Aside for the CatsThe Cat Money Note
  • 8
    Pet Trusts and Wills in Plain EnglishQuestions for My Attorney
  • 9
    If No One Can Take ThemMy Rescue Shortlist · A Letter for My Cat's Next Home
  • 10
    Keeping the Plan CurrentMy Review Log · Is My Plan Finished?

✎ marks a page you fill in. Comes with three printables: the Emergency Wallet Card, the Cats Inside Door Sign and the Fridge Cat Care Sheet.

The Easy-Care Cat Home
Practical guide · 60 pages

The Easy-Care Cat Home

Living Well With Cats As We Get Older

Around sixty-two, my right knee and I stopped being on speaking terms. This is the book I went looking for: less bending, less lifting, less worry.

  • 1
    A Home That Fits You BothThe Fifteen-Minute Walk-Through
  • 2
    The Litter Box Without the Backache
  • 3
    Underfoot
  • 4
    Brushes, Claws and Stiff Hands
  • 5
    Cats on a Fixed IncomeMy Monthly Cat Budget
  • 6
    Play From a Chair
  • 7
    Peace in a Small Home
  • 8
    Adopting Later in LifeQuestions for the Shelter
  • 9
    Travel and Hospital StaysBefore I Go
  • 10
    The Weekly Ten MinutesMy Weekly Ten Minutes

✎ marks a page you fill in. Comes with one printable: the Weekly 10-Minute Cat Care Checklist.

What the manual looks like in my house

Margie in her armchair brushing a tortoiseshell cat on her lap with a grooming glove
Chapter 30. A few minutes with a brush, from a chair, saves an hour with a vacuum.
A tortoiseshell cat up on her hind legs batting at a feather on a wand held from an armchair
Chapter 36. The wand and the hunt. I sit; Juniper does the jumping.
A grey tabby cat curled up asleep in a plain cardboard box in a patch of sun
Chapter 38. Toys that cost nothing. Pickle has never once slept in a bed I paid for.
03Look inside before you buy

Real pages, just as you'll print them.

Six pages from the manual and four of the printables. The type is large and the lines are roomy enough for real handwriting. Tap any page to see it full size.

229 pages · 46 chapters

Want to read a whole chapter first? Read Chapter 14 free →

04Margie's Complete Cat Library

The manual, both smaller books and every printable, together.

One payment. No subscription. They download straight away to your phone, tablet or computer, and every page prints at home.

The Easy-Care Cat Home The Cat Room Manual The Cat Care Plan

Three large-print books · eight printables

Large-print PDFs · 347 pages · 2026 edition

Margie's Complete Cat Library

The manual for every ordinary trouble, the guide to a house that's easier on your knees, and the planner for the day you can't be there.

$27$59Sale price
What you get
  • The Cat Room Manual: 229 pages, 46 chapters
    $39
  • The Easy-Care Cat Home: the 60-page guide to cats as we get older
    $19
  • The Cat Care Plan: the 58-page fill-in planner
    $19
  • Four fill-in sheets from the manual: What Changed?, My Safety Walk, My Ten-Minute Evening, Before I Telephone the Vet
    included
  • Emergency Wallet Card, Cats Inside Door Sign, Fridge Cat Care Sheet and Weekly Cat Care Checklist
    included
Your price today$27
GET ALL THREE BOOKS — $27

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7DAYS

7-day money-back promise. Read it, try a chapter on your own cat. If it isn't for you, send one email and you get every cent back.

Or buy just one book
The Cat Room Manual

The Cat Room Manual

All 46 chapters, plus its four fill-in sheets as printables

$19$39
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The Easy-Care Cat Home

The Easy-Care Cat Home

The guide, plus the Weekly Cat Care Checklist

$12$19
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The Cat Care Plan

The Cat Care Plan

The fill-in planner, plus the wallet card, door sign and fridge sheet

$12$19
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How it works

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Choose your book

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Checkout is handled by Stripe, so your card details never touch this site. The checkout and your card statement show AshYT, the company that publishes Margie's books.

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Margie in her armchair at home, with a grey tabby asleep beside herMargie Hollis · Dayton, Ohio
Margie sitting on a low stool in a shelter cat room, holding out her hand while a black-and-white cat steps out of a kennel to sniff it
Tuesday morning in the cat room. You sit still and you wait.
05About Margie

A librarian who has unpacked a great many cat carriers.

I was a school librarian in Dayton for most of my working life. I've lived with cats for forty years, and for the last twenty I've spent my Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the cat room of my county shelter. I'm sixty-six. At the moment the house is run by Pickle, a grey tabby of fourteen with opinions about everything, and Juniper, a tortoiseshell of six with opinions mainly about Pickle.

I am not a veterinarian and I am not a lawyer, and you won't find medical or legal advice in my books. What you'll find is what Mrs. Pruitt, who ran our cat room, taught me, and what the cats taught me after that.

“Sit on the floor and be boring. The cat will come to you.”Mrs. Pruitt · who ran the cat room
— Margie
Chapter 14 of The Cat Room Manual: A Box That Doesn't SmellFree · Chapter 14
Not ready yet?

Read Chapter 14 free.

“A Box That Doesn't Smell”: why the cat room never smelled of cats, the twelve things I do at my own boxes, and why a scented spray makes it worse. It opens right away, with nothing to sign up for.

Open Chapter 14 →

A free 7-page PDF · No email needed

06Questions

Before you decide.

Is this a paper book that comes in the mail?

No, friend. These are digital books (PDF files) that you download right after you pay. Nothing is posted to you, so there is no shipping and no waiting.

How do I get my downloads?

Two ways, so you can't lose them. The moment your payment goes through, the next page shows your download buttons. An email with the same link is sent to you as well. If it hasn't turned up, look in your spam folder for “Margie Hollis”, or write to margie@margieknowscats.com and we'll send it again.

Can I print it at home?

Yes, and I hope you will. The pages are ordinary letter size and print on any home printer. You're welcome to print the fill-in pages as many times as you need for your own household: a fresh “What Changed?” sheet for each vet visit, one Cat Profile per cat. No printer? A library or copy shop can print the file for you.

How large is the print?

Large enough to read comfortably and roomy enough to write on with a real pen. Tap any page in “Look inside” above to see one at full size before you buy.

Is this veterinary or legal advice?

No. I'm a retired school librarian and a shelter volunteer, not a veterinarian, an attorney or a financial adviser. The books are general information from one cat lover to another. If you're worried about a cat's health, that's a vet visit. The manual tells you which changes mean a telephone call to the vet today and which mean now, tonight. For wills, pet trusts and anything else with a signature on it, speak to an estate attorney in your state.

Which one should I choose?

Start with The Cat Room Manual. The Complete Cat Library adds The Easy-Care Cat Home and The Cat Care Plan with their printables.

Is this a subscription?

No. You pay once and the books are yours to keep.

What if it isn't for me?

You have 7 days. Send one email to margie@margieknowscats.com and you'll get your money back. You don't have to say why. The details are on the refunds page.

A grey tabby and a tortoiseshell cat asleep at opposite ends of the same sofa
Chapter 43: one sofa, two ends. Polite neighbors count as a success.
Margie at her living-room window holding a grey tabby against her shoulder, a tortoiseshell cat on the sill beside them
A last word from Margie

“Give them a sunny window, a clean box and a little patience. They'll give you everything else.”

And give yourself the manual. Seven days to change your mind.

Get The Cat Room Manual — $19

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The Cat Room Manual229 large-print pages · 46 chapters · 7-day refund
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