You can take a cat to water but you can't make it think.

Last summer, Chris Pascoe decided to do something monumentally stupid. He decided to stay at home with his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Maya and disaster-prone tabby Birmingham, Brum for short. And also with Brum's rather vicious live-in-partner-girl-cat Sammy, who he intended mainly not to wake. Let biting cats lie. Why he believed time with Brum would, with all the years of contrary evidence, be quality he's not at all sure . . .

The result is a series of tales of death-defying feats. Paddling pools, gazebos, small birds and kitchens - all aspects of normal life can take a dangerous turn with the presence of Brum. Pascoe tries to train the tabby, restrain the tabby and even researches the stories of other danger cats in a bid to keep Brum alive a bit longer. And amazingly, despite the efforts of his exuberant two-year-old with a plastic mallet, he still is.