Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death

Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?

In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician's knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend's skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.

Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it.

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240 pages

Average rating: 7.95

21 RATINGS

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2 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Anonymous
Dec 04, 2023
10/10 stars
I love Caitlin and I love books that give me weird tidbits of info to mess with people. This book covers interesting and very insightful questions about death from kids. I'm terribly upset that Viking funerals are a myth and actually can't burn up a body while on water. I was going to have that in my will. :(

I read the section about dying on a plane, ironically, while on a plane. This caused me to scrutinize my fellow passengers to see if they were dead. Every question had a funny but intelligent answer from Caitlin. Death isn't so scary when it's put in black and white (or multi-color as the answer to "Why do we turn colors when we die?" explains)

As to the answer to the title question? It's yes, but not right away.
stacy091417
Feb 03, 2023
9/10 stars
This was a fun read. It was informative, and Caitlin’s personality was felt throughout the book. Other than focusing on death there is not a cohesive narrative, which may be an issue for some. The book feels like you are attending a Q&A session where people are asking Caitlin their strange or unexpected questions about death.

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