Cat Lovers Are a Special Breed

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
Ed Lynskey
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Published on May 24, 2011 01:53 Tags: pets, writer-muse
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message 1: by Kiki (new)

Kiki Freem You are indeed in good company as a cat lover and write! So many novelists through history have had a feline Muse.

Do you have any photos of you with your cat? I'm collecting pictures and paragraphs from authors with cats. Check it out here if interested:

www.acatonmykeyboard.wordpress.com

Purrs to you,
Kim


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