You can't be around a zoo very long without noticing something: people love the cats, big or little. They may laugh at the monkeys, pretend to shudder at the snakes, goggle at the brilliant birds. But let a wobbly lion cub make an appearance, and you might as well close up the rest of the zoo for the day.

This affectionate interest is not confined to zoo-going adults. Why does on children's zoo keep a padlock on its cat-and-kitten exhibit? Because loving children want to carry the kittens home.

In view of this enthusiasm, I foresee a loud purr of appreciation for Carl Burger's story of cats wild and domestic. After a few catlike leaps into and out of some especially dramatic periods in the history of domestic cats, Mr. Burger starts at the beginning some millions of years ago. He works steadily forward into the wild species of the present day and then spreads out with a most interesting account of domestic breeds. It is true that few of us keep the wild species as pets (none of us should), but they and even their remotest extinct ancestors tell us something about our household tabbies and their independent ways. Not much, perhaps, but something -- for who is ever going to understand a cat completely?

Many have tried, and the more philosophical among us will read Mr. Burger's final chapter, "The Mind of the Cat," with emotions in which admiration for his impartiality struggles with our own bias. I am glad he stresses the point that we cannot judge the actions of cats by human standards; too many people do, for good or bad. One thing, though, we can agree on:

"Amid the anxieties of modern life, man needs the restful companionship of friendly animals. This need is well filled by the cat, the most beautifully perfect of all the animal kingdom."

From the Foreword by William Bridges