Ed Lynskey's Blog: Cracked Rearview Mirror - Posts Tagged "pets"

This week I finished reading Craig Johnson's newest (and terrific) Sheriff Walt Longmire title, JUNKYARD DOGS, and the author includes Walt's pet dog named, simply, Dog. That got me to thinking about how pets are used in fiction. The thinking goes that including a pet makes our hero more humane, sensitive, or well-rounded. I'd tend to agree. A couple of years ago, we had to put down our cat after 21 years with us. It was a heart-breaking event. Stinky was one of the family. Why? I don't know. She just was. So, I think pets do play an important emotional role in our lives (if not our sanity). By the way, I'm happy to report we got a black-and-white cat, and Frannie has made herself right at home.

Count me as one of the clan. Our cat is a black-and-white short-haired mess of sweet trouble. We call her "Frannie" after my Private Eye Frank Johnson series character. Goofy stuff, for sure.

Can you believe some folks don't like cats? My Cousin Ben despises them. Ben is superstitious of the black ones. He and I don't get along so well, but that's a different blog topic.

Frannie is pretty good company except when she coughs up a hairball. Or she's cornered another stink bug or mouse. I've designated her my writer's Muse. Some days, like the Muse, she can turn a little cranky.

I wondered as cat lovers if we're in good company. So I googled famous cat lovers: Edgar Allan Poe, Papa Hemingway (he owned 30!), Lord Byron, Raymond Chandler (that's cool), and Vanna White (Wheel of Fortune). Not a shabby roster there.

We had to put down two cats we'd had for 20(!) and 14 years, respectively. Man, that was hard to do. I'd gotten quite attached to them. After going catless for a year, I was ready to adopt a new one. The young couple had a new baby and were fearful Frannie would eat it. Jeez. Do cats actually do that sort of thing?

Sometmes Frannie pokes in and interrupts me. That's a good thing. Too much time spent holed up in a cave does warped shifts to your perspective if not sanity. But she just knows when it's time for me to take five, come up for air, and rejoin humanity.

And that's why I'm a cat lover.

Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles

It all began as a routine trip to our local vet. It ended with me as a bloody mess. The vet--who isn't important--had taken our cat--she's Frannie--into a back room to do a procedure that's not too pleasant to watch.

The trouble was we'd stayed in the first examination room, waiting. And waiting. Fifteen minutes later, the vet returned to grab a flashlight, muttered something, and left. Then like my PI character, I wandered back to snoop in the second room. Frannie had escaped and crawled up under a cabinet.

The vet and his two assistants were trying to use a broomstick to dislodge her. She was frantic, hissing and crying. So, I bent down and reached way under there and grabbed her. Not a good idea.

She turned on me, and a cat's teeth can do a wicked number on your hands and wrists. But I dragged her out and caged her. We left. My doc put me on antibiotics for two weeks, and I healed up fine. Fortunately Frannie turned back to her sweet, former nature.

Oh, and we also found a new vet.

By Ed Lynskey
@edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Satisfying."
The Rap Sheet/Kirkus Reviews

Some more well-known fellow cat lovers (also known as ailurophiles) includes:

1. Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland had the Cheshire Cat)

2. T.S. Eliot (Macavity Award for mystery authors is named after his cat)

3. Raymond Chandler (and by extension PI Philip Marlowe)

4. Eartha Kitt (appropriately she of Catwoman fame)

5. Mark Twain (Huck and Tom liked cats)

6. Honest Abe (White House cat named Tabby)

7. Amy Carter (hers was named "Misty Malarky Ying Yang" Huh?)

8. Vanna White (has anyone heard her mention them on Wheel of Fortune?)

9. The Brontes (no wonder they're such famous writers!)

10. Lord Byron (the cats helped to settle his mercurial nature)

11. John Lennon (have I seen a photo with him holding a cat?)

12. Freddie Mercury (dedicated his debut solo LP to his kitties)

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Definitely recommend you take a fictional journey to Lake Charles."
Elizabeth A. White's Musings of an All Purpose Monkey

It's Like This, Cat is a YA novel written by Emily Cheney Neville. I see it won the Newbery Medal for American children's lit in 1964. That seems right since I recall reading and liking it back then, and I've always liked the ironic title. As if you could ever tell a cat the way it is. Nope, that's not going to happen except in your dreams.

Our vet, a wise man, once told me that cats at best tolerate their owners. I thought he was kidding me. I had a lot to learn. We had a calico for 21 years, and ended up putting her down. That was sad, but a pretty good run, I believe.

Cats make for good company. I'm not going to bore you, and me, with all the cute stuff they like to do. You can see it all on Youtube. One habit I've noticed is they have to keep tabs on you at all times. They also abhor shut doors. Sometimes they just barge right in on you. That can be embarassing.

I used to be just a dog person. But cats have woven their way into my life, and I'm better off for it, I'd say. They provide me with an amusing muse.

Happy reading to you and yours!

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Definitely recommend you take a fictional journey to Lake Charles."
Elizabeth A. White's Musings of an All Purpose Monkey

Of course dogs are man's best friend, and writers love having them around as much as anybody does. So, I decided to put together a list of famous writers who loved their canine pals.

#1. Edith Wharton. Lots of photos of her show her holding her adored Chihuahuas and Pekingese.

#2. John Steinbeck. Charley was Steinbeck's French poodle who accompnied him on his cross-country trek in 1960, resulting in a book, Travels With Charley.

#3. Kurt Vonnegut. He loved a Lhasa Apso, a small breed.

#4. Stephen King. Despite his literary creation of the vicious Cujo, he's a happy dog owner.

#5. William Styron. He took daily walks with his dog to battle his depression.

#6. Virginia Woolf. Her pooch Pinka was once dognapped and held for ransom.

#7. Emily Brontë. She kept a mastiff named Keeper. I guess the moors she traversed got to be dangerous.

#8. Emily Dickinson. Carlo, a Newfoundland, was her shaggy muse.

#9. William Faulkner. In 1947, Henri Cartier-Bresson snapped the famous photo of Faulkner with his two terriers in his Oxford, MS, garden (http://tiny.cc/oulh8).

#10. Dashiell Hammett. Who can forget the female Schnauzer Asta belonging to Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man stories?

Happy reading to you and yours!

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Definitely recommend you take a fictional journey to Lake Charles."
Elizabeth A. White's Musings of an All Purpose Monkey

In a few days, we'll leave our cat at the vet's office for some minor surgery. We've grown quite fond of Frannie, and I'll worry, no doubt. That got me to thinking again about pets, and how attached we get to them. Of course, it's silly because they're just animals, but that's just the way it is. I'm also a dog lover (except for the big, mean dogs that like to attack folks). I noticed around the neighborhood flyers tacked up for a lost cockatoo named Bella. Birds never did much for me, but I hope poor Bella makes it home. I'll keep my eyes peeled. We've always kept our pets indoors since motorists like to regard our neighborhood as a fast shortcut to avoid the traffic light at the corner. But that's a different matter. For now, have you hugged your pet today?

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Ask the Dice (Newest Stand Alone Washington, D.C. Crime Noir)



The Zinc Zoo (Newest P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery)