Pierre Berton's latest hair-raising tale is a history, but not of a war. It's a series of true stories about the cats that Berton and his family have known and loved.

In Cats I Have Known and Loved, Berton weaves tales about the many felines who have crossed his path. There is the extraordinary story of Happy, Berton's first cat, who rescued her kittens after the author's mother tried to drown them. There is also the story of Pousse-Pousse -- a cat with extra toes, who is carried off by an owl but reappears at the door seven months later.

"I don't always write about history because that would be boring. So I like to take a break and write about something else," Berton told Canada AM's Lisa LaFlamme.

Why cats? Berton said they seem to be drawn to him and his home, and he simply can't turn them away.

"What are you going to do? You're in bed at night. There's pouring rain outside and suddenly at the window appears a woeful little face, howling," Berton said. "You open the door. The cat comes in and goes right into the closet and has five kittens in your shoes. That's a true story."

Unlike dogs, Berton said he prefers cats because they are independent and themselves. "And they don't give a damn for anybody.

"All these stories about the faithful dog lying beside the body of his master. It won't leave, howling piteously," he said. "A cat will walk across the corpse to get to the grub on the other side."

Berton has had so many cats in his life that his son, Paul, has taken to calling all of them Dave, regardless of what their real name is. Paul also has "Rules for Guests," which Berton adapted for his book. They include the following: "No discussion is so intense, no story so riveting, that it can't be interrupted when a cat enters the room."

Berton on Iraq, God

Berton, who has four books on wars, told LaFlamme that if he had to write a book about Iraq he would say the war against Baghdad "is being used as a political device to get votes."

He said the war on terrorism is not like any old-fashioned war. Berton said what we're living now is a continual state of war, similar to what George Orwell talked about in his book, 1984.

"We're getting continual war all the time, quite often for political reasons. That's how people get elected. 'Let's go to war!' and everybody applauds."

Berton, an atheist, also touched on the topic of God during his interview with LaFlamme, saying he doesn't believe "there's a little man in the sky running our lives."

"I think you run your own life, that you make your own heaven and hell on this earth and not in some hereafter. I don't think there's any hereafter."

As for Berton's next book, he said it will focus on "northern characters."