James Bowen is a London-based writer and street musician. His books Street Cat named Bob and The World Through the Eyes of Bob Cat, co-authored with Gary Jenkins, have become international bestsellers.
Childhood
James Bowen was born in Surrey on March 15, 1979. After his parents divorced, he moved to Australia with his mother and stepfather. Family life was stressful, and since the family moved often, James was not controlled at school. He was bullied at school, and because of this, he began to sniff glue. In his school years, he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder.
Street life
In 1997, he returned to the UK and began to live with his stepsister. But this did not last long, and very soon Bowen became homeless and began to live on the streets of London. It was at this time that he began to use heroin in an attempt to escape from the reality of the homeless. In the spring of 2007, Bowen was enrolled in a methadone program as a man making money at Covent Garden and living in municipal housing in Tottenham.
Meeting with Bob
One evening he returned home and found a red cat in the porch. Assuming that the cat belongs to someone, James simply returned to his apartment. When James found the cat on the porch the next day, he became worried and found that the cat had no collar, and also noticed an infected wound on his paw. Bowen took the cat to the nearest point of charity veterinary surgery and gave almost all the money earned per day for the purchase of antibiotics. To make sure that the cat had undergone a full two-week course of treatment and was cured, James decided to take it home until the owner of the animal was found. When he despaired of finding the owner of the cat, he decided to just let it out, hoping that he would find his way home. But instead, the cat began to constantly follow James, even when he went to work as a street musician on a bus. Worried that the cat has nowhere to go, James took the cat to his house forever, calling him Bob in honor of the character from the television series Twin Peaks. Since Bob really enjoyed seeing James off to work, James made a harness made of laces and began to accompany him to his regular places for street concerts.
Start of success
The reaction of the audience to the cat was positive, but later James had to stop playing guitar on the street, as he might have problems with the law. Instead, he found a safer and more legal way to make money - selling the street newspaper The Big Issue. When people started uploading videos of James and Bob to the Internet, tourists began to visit Covent Garden more often, sometimes even just to see James and Bob. It was then that James decided to stop methadone treatment and stop using drugs. He explains his decision with the appearance of Bob and acknowledges his contribution to improving his life, saying: “I believe that everything came down to this little creature. He came and asked for my help, and he asked for my help more than my body asked for "Self-destruction. He is the reason I now wake up every day."
