MYSTERY AUTHORS’ PETS by Catty Doggens, Guest Blogger

 

James Patterson's cat

Many of our favorite mysteries include pets, and in homage to May being National Pet Month, here are some mystery authors' pets!

I can't say whether it helps James Patterson crank out yet another bestseller, but his cat Redboy sits on his head. Patterson says "He's a head cat, not a lap cat."

Janet Evanovich has a Havanese named Ollie and also has a "Readers' Pets" column on her website.

We know that long walks in nature can inspire writers, but David Baldacci quipped that "our dogs hid their leashes because we were walking them too much."

Val McDermid was adopted by a cat who followed her home one night and yowled at her door until she opened it. The cat strode right in and soon became a fat, curry-loving member of the family.

John Le Carre' reportedly kept a Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot in the kitchen and a Himalayan monkey in the garden.

In a letter to a friend, Raymond Chandler wrote: "Our cat is growing positively tyrannical. If she finds herself alone anywhere she emits blood-curdling yells until somebody comes running."

Agatha Christie indulged her love of dogs in her novel Dumb Witness, whose canine character Bob was directly inspired by her own wire-haired terrier Peter.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said his dog "was a valuable and beautiful collie, and the playfellow of his children."

Edgar Allen Poe's tortoiseshell cat, "Cattarina" reportedly perched on his shoulder while he wrote. 

And since Charles Dickens created Inspector Bucket to solve the mystery of Bleak House and his last book was The Mystery of Edwin Drood, I'm including his pets: his favorite dog, a mastiff named Turk, the canary who hopped on the breakfast table, an attention loving cat who would put out Dickens's reading light, and the pet raven named Grip.

Hooray for May being National Pet Month! Now tell us your favorite pet, and favorite pet from a mystery.

 

The post Mystery Authors' Pets appeared first on sandinourshorts.blogspot.com on May 4, 2024