Life Lessons from Gato

Smithies Create

Winter Miller in a rainbow shirt with a gray and white cat on a boat in a lake.

BY LINNEA DULEY ’16

Published March 14, 2022

Gato may mean “cat” in Spanish, but please, don’t try to label him. The narrator of Not a Cat: A Memoir—the first children’s picture book by playwright Winter Miller ’95—Gato teaches kids (and parents) what it means to live authentically.

A Memoir as told to Winter Miller, and illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff Inspired by Miller’s real-life cat of the same name, Gato takes readers on his life’s journey—one filled with activities not normally associated with cats, but with dogs, horses, and even humans. (How many other felines can say they’ve driven a taxi in San Francisco?) At the heart of Gato’s antics is a simple yet crucial message: Just be you.

NOT A CAT: A MEMOIR
Winter Miller ’95; illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
Tilbury House Publishers, March 2022

This story appears as part of the Smithies Create column in the Spring 2022 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Winter Miller ’95 and her adventurous cat, Gato.