Welcome to OnMeowaukee Cat Week, a meowsome bunch of articles, photos, videos and an Instagram contest celebrating all aspects of Milwaukee cats. Sponsored by Bark N' Scratch Outpost, the next seven days are dedicated to those creatures with nine lives who make our lives more paw-sitive.

Though we don’t get nine lives, surely we can find time for nine books. In the spirit of cat week, here are nine books about cats (OK, one isn’t actually about cats, but has cats in the title) for readers young and old.

1. "The Cat in the Hat" & "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" by Dr. Seuss

Sassy, sassy, sassy. That’s a cat for you. Kids, never, ever do what the cat tells you to do.

2. "Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats" by T. S. Eliot

A classic of cat art and of poetry.

3. "Pete The Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes" by Eric Litwin and James Dean

If you’re the parent of young kids, you’ve probably heard your kids sing this. Or have walked into day care to find them singing along with this. Or both. Insidiously catchy.

4. "The Cat Inside" by William S. Burroughs

In which the beat brother conjures the many cats he’s known.

5. "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" by Bill Watterson

Perhaps the most fun and most incisive work on this list.

6. "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Also a great film, Yann Martel’s "Life of Pi" is perhaps the work that most captures our complex relationship with felines. On a raft. Out in the ocean.

7. "On Cats" by Doris Lessing

If you want to read about any subject – even cats – there is no more enjoyable way to do it than by reading the legendary Doris Lessing’s ruminations.

8. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis

An absolute classic and one that’s gotten yet another lease on life thanks to a 2005 movie that’s enjoying enduring success, especially among young viewers. Part of the acclaimed "Chronic(what?!)cles of Narnia" series.

9. "Cat’s Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

OK, so this one isn’t really about cats, but it’s got the word "cat" in the title and it’s one of Vonnegut’s best works, digging into the Cold War arms race and, in his own oblique way, Rastafarianism.