Katie the Catsitter

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-11

Chapters 12-15

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Themes

Animal Rights, Social Activism, and the Law

Katie the Catsitter is a novel that is very concerned about animal rights and the relationships that human beings have with animals. This is evident in the fact most of the action revolves around Katie learning to care for 217 highly intelligent cats, and through Madeline, who is eventually revealed to be the Mousetress. By day, Ms. Lang campaigns for animal rights through more traditional, accepted means, such as the protest she speaks at, and by running a chain of vegan restaurants. By night, she dons the Mousetress costume and commits much more radical acts, such as starting fires, blowing up buildings, and breaking and entering. The novel uses animal rights as a means to explore social activism more broadly, especially its intersection with the law, ethics, and morality.

The Mousetress is portrayed as a benevolent vigilante. Her three targets are not innocent victims, but are guilty of animal abuse and cruelty: New You Cosmetics was engaging in animal testing; Pure Organics owner Lydia Staples was illegally hunting endangered animals; and celebrity Hunter Q. Prescott ran an illegal gambling ring that specialized in dogfighting. At the protest over mistreatment of carriage horses, Ms. Lang’s speech extends the novel’s definition of animal cruelty to include taking overworking animals and keeping them in conditions that result in suffering and a poor quality of life.

Ms. Lang tackles cases of animal abuse in different ways. As the Mousetress, she takes matters into her own hands when things are unambiguously wrong and existing laws are ineffective. For example, hunting endangered species and dogfighting are illegal, but laws are not stopping people. In these cases, legitimate forms of activism like protesting for legal reform don’t make as much sense. When targeting New You Cosmetics, Pure Organics, and Hunter Q. Prescott, the Mousetress takes the law into her own hands and resorts to vigilantism—she even commits crimes (such as setting fire to a building) in her efforts to help the animals in question. However, in the case of the carriage horses, laws don’t already exist to protect them, the animals perform a necessary function in the city, and overwork is a much harder abuse to measure. In this case, Ms. Lang opts to use more mainstream, legitimately accepted means of fighting for change, like protesting.

Ultimately, the novel does not suggest there are easy, clear-cut answers to fighting for animal rights. At the same time, it supports both forms of social activism. This is evident through Katie’s view that Ms. Lang as the Mousetress, is not a villain. Venable suggests that while legal means of protest sometimes work, they are often not enough.

The Difference Between Appearances and Reality

In Katie the Catsitter, the way things appear superficially often do not reflect reality. The first example of this is when Katie attempts to help one of her older neighbors bring his grocery bags up to his apartment on the sixth floor. Katie is thrilled by the prospect of earning two dollars a bag, but quickly realizes that her neighbor is in much better shape than he appears and that the bags are heavier than she can handle. Later, a pattern emerges among the people that the Mousetress targets for her attacks: While they appear to be socially responsible and philanthropic, they are all guilty of animal cruelty. The Mousetress’s targets suggest that the split between appearance and reality may not always be as innocuous as the old man’s fragile appearance and his real, physical strength. In fact, outer appearance can be a I masking something undesirable or immoral.

As the novel progresses, Venable reveals this to be true of New York City’s most popular superhero, the Eastern Screech. Despite his obvious incompetence and narcissism, nearly everyone in the city—Katie’s friend, Jess; her teacher, Ms. Sistine; the adoring crowd at the Museum of Justice—seems to love him. However, his popularity does not reflect his abilities as a superhero. He routinely shows up to crime scenes after the damage is done and then gets everything wrong, and he spends most of his time engaging in public relations campaigns. At no point is he ever depicted helping someone in need. His only act of “heroism” is capturing the Mousetress, whom he knows is not a supervillain, but whose capture will boost his popularity.

When it comes to the Mousetress, there is also a gap between appearances and reality. Ms. Lang’s reputation as a supervillain doesn’t reflect her goodness, and her statue in the Museum of Justice is fabricated. Her bad reputation obscures her altruism. Unlike the superheroes in the city, she is more concerned with getting things done than in marketing herself. The crimes she commits are for a cause she believes in and are targeted at other people who are breaking the law. In this way, the Mousetress’s inaccurate reputation suggests the need to look beyond superficial impressions. Over the course of the novel, Katie comes to realize this. Her deepened understanding of morality results from her learning to look past appearances and reputation, and is an important milestone in her coming-of-age.

Changing Friendships and Growing Apart

The opening chapters of Katie the Catsitter establish how close Katie and Bethany are—they hang out after school, they share their shoes, and they dye their hair a matching color. They contrast with their slightly self-absorbed friend, Jess, whom they both find silly for having crushes on every boy she meets. However, with summer camp looming and Katie unable to afford to go, their differences are brought into the foreground, and the month apart sees them grow into different people with different interests. As a result, their friendship begins to deteriorate. The colorful, glitter-filled postcards they send one another every day become plain and are sent less frequently; they begin talking past one another and ignoring important details of each other’s postcards; and eventually, Katie debates whether she even wants to go to camp anymore. While the changing postcards mark their deteriorating friendship, the signs are there long before.

The story is focused on Katie’s perspective, and only gives insight into her experience of the shift. At the same time, the novel is careful not to villainize or point fingers at Bethany. Katie does grow frustrated and upset with the less decorated and less frequent postcards—especially the revelation that Bethany now goes by “Beth,” a name she previously hated, and the fact that she ignored her comments about Ms. Lang and the Mousetress. However, Katie is equally guilty of not paying attention. She has been distracted by her new job and the relationships she is forming with Ms. Lang and Marie. She has also sent fewer postcards, and she ignored Bethany’s admission about having a crush on Ben, something that is likely just as important to her as Katie’s concern that Ms. Lang is possibly the Mousetress.

By establishing that both are equally to blame, Venable naturalizes their changing relationship and suggests that it is simply something that happens to some friends as they grow up. It is partly due to the time apart, which allows them to spend time with different people and realize they like different things, but it is also due to their different life circumstances. Bethany comes from a much wealthier family than Katie, and this means they have very different experiences and priorities. Katie is forced to grow up faster and be more independent, whereas Bethany’s mother does a lot for her. Katie’s relationship with Ms. Lang also exposes her to ideas about animal rights, engendering a social awareness that transforms her priorities. Ultimately, their changing friendship is no one’s fault, nor is it an inherently bad thing. Their relationship changes as they do, and by the end of the novel they have both found friends that reflect their new interests and will continue to shape them.