In Search of Cleo: How I Found My Pussy and Lost My Mind

A charming memoir about the search for self, sanity, and a woman’s best friend.

Film and television icon Gina Gershon is a self-described cat person. So when her hippy-dippy newfound assistant Cassandra* (yes, Cassandra spelled with a star) lost her beloved cat Cleo en route to a dog-grooming shop—yes, dog grooming—Gina sunk into a state of desperation and despair. Cleo had meowed by her side through one of the most difficult times in Gina’s life. This humanlike black cat with piercing green eyes acted as her support system after she lost her father, uncle, and three close friends and suffered a devastating breakup with her boyfriend of eight years. Cleo was the constant in Gina’s life, a loyal companion—even if at times a naughty, headstrong panther.

Gina, determined to find Cleo, spent two and half months roaming the streets of Lost Angeles at all hours of the night. A cast of various, at times eccentric characters helped her in her quest. Ellen DeGeneres recommended a pet psychic, Sonia; Arthur, a newspaper delivery man, gave her advice; John, from jail, promised to deliver Cleo; and a mysterious fortune-teller, who appeared from the shadows, gave her a statue of St. Gertrude, protector of cats everywhere. Armed with never-ceasing hope, Gina found herself enmeshed in L.A.’s strangest subcultures, doing everything possible to bring her cat home.

In this personal, quirky memoir, Gina reflects on the various cats that have been a part of her life and how they were analogues to her relationships with men, as well as her finding unconditional love in unexpected places. Rife with humor and no-holds-barred honesty, In Search of Cleo is an account of a single girl’s travails in search of her cat, love, and some sanity.