It's Like This, Cat (Version 2)

Dave is fourteen, stuck in a walk-up on Coney Island, and desperate for something to be different. Then he finds Cat, a scruffy, headstrong stray who refuses to be anything but exactly what he is. What starts as one boy's attempt to fill the loneliness becomes something neither of them expected: a partnership. Set in 1960s New York City, this is a story about the small, stubborn ways creatures choose each other, and how one alley cat can reshape a teenager's entire understanding of what it means to belong. Emily Neville captures the raw, uncertain voice of adolescence with an honesty that still feels revolutionary. Dave isn't a mascot or a lesson, he's a kid navigating divorce, neighborhood tensions, and the ache of wanting his life to mean something. The cat just happens to be the thing that saves him, without ever trying to.