Writers and Their Kitties

Writers and Their Kitties

cheeseburger.com had an interesting post the other day featuring pics of authors with their cats.  There must be more than a dozen but only three or so are featured on the front page.  You have to click the 'more' to see the rest.  It is worth it if you are into either writers or cats.  Among them are Twain, Faulkner, King, Capote and Gaiman.  I would have embedded the post as usual but I couldn't choose the pic that way and I wanted Joyce Carol Oates who is near the top of my lists of fav writers and most influential to my own writing.

As for the cat who had the most influence on my writing--sleeping inside my jacket when I typed in the wee hours of cold nights, sleeping on my shoulder as I read in the easy chair, performing antics that got written into scenes--that would have been Gremlyn, my Siamese/Tabby/Abyssinian cross who never got bigger than your typical six month old kitten. We were constant companions form August 1993 until I lost her on St Patrick's Day 2007.  And I mean 'constant' literally.  She was never far and often in actual physical contact.  Even riding on my shoulder as I walked around the house and sleeping in my (at the time very long) hair.  She followed me around crying for me to sit down to be her bed.  She carried on reciprocal conversations with me that were often as inflected as human dialog.  I'd lost all the pictures taken of her and of us together in our 2001 move and no more had been taken before she died. Sometimes I'm startled by how much I still miss her.  Other times I'm stunned to realize I've gone days without remembering her.