Lisa Zador is no ordinary painter of animals. Although her enchanting animal portraits take their cue from Old Masters, these oil paintings always demonstrate her own sure-handed technique and transcend parody and sentimentality. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes melancholy, and sometimes outlandish, Zador's cat portraits are a delight - not just to cat fanciers but also to connoisseurs of the art of the portrait. Unlike many painters, Zador works from live subjects - cats she knows and befriends - to produce portraits that convey the personalities of the subjects, albeit clothed in artistic or historical costume. In this beautifully designed gift book, Zador has gathered a gallery of twenty pure- and mixed-breed cats. Each portrait is accompanied by a hilarious text about the subject, offering each cat the sort of magnificent life we all secretly imagine for our pets. Samantha, for example, who is only shown from the head-and-shoulders view because - let's face it - she has a bit of a weight problem, a sad admission noted by the once-irresistible feline fatale, whose exploits as a secret agent, it is said, fashioned the basis for the espionage classic You Only Live Nine Times.