Animals in Our Stories
Writers who pen westerns must have a deep-seated respect for animals. All those horses and cattle. The loyal dogs. The villainous rattlesnakes. Shoot, even the chickens have a role to play. Out on the lonely prairie, a fella was more apt to talk to his horse than another person for days on end.
I love animals. But I have a confession to make . . . I don’t own any. Part of the reason is that my husband has allergies, especially where cats and other long-haired critters are concerned. Another contributing factor is the three children living with us who already demand a lot of attention and cleaning up after. Also, with all the traveling I do for my writing career, the hassle of finding and paying for dog sitters is not terribly attractive at this point. Maybe once our nest is empty and all the kids have left, we’ll consider some four-legged children, but for now we only support the two-legged variety.
I had dogs and cats as a child – all outdoor animals. We had seven acres with lots of room to roam. But even then, the animals always loved my brother more than me. It seemed dreadfully unfair until I realized that he was the one who lived outside with them. Playing. Going on adventures. More often than not I was in my room reading about animals. All those great Black Stallion books. Old Yeller. Sounder. Where the Red Fern Grows. (Why are the dog books always so sad???) I would imagine myself racing across the plains on my trusty steed, but in truth I’ve only ever ridden about a dozen times in my life and mostly those were at a walking pace. Sigh.
But the imagination is a wonderful thing. I can create heroines who ride, shoot, and spit better than any man if I so desire. Or give a boy a dog that becomes his most trusted confidant. So that’s what I do. I add animals to my books, name them, and give them special connections with their owners. Then I live vicariously through my characters to enjoy all the benefits of animal love without any of the unromantic poop scooping or hair vacuuming.
Animals don’t play key roles in all of my stories. But I have had a few that warranted extra page time and emotional commitment from my characters. Where dogs are concerned: Travis Archer had Sadie, Levi Grant had Ornery, and little Lewis Adams had the adorable Hercules.
Then there are the horses. I think I have more fun naming the horses than I do the people sometimes. Some of my favorites have been Gideon and Adelaide in Head in the Clouds having Samson and Sheba, Travis having Bexar (even the horse had ties to the Alamo!), Stone Hammond with Goliath, and of course, Ben Porter’s matched Shires – Hermes and Helios.
I’m currently working on rewrites for my next full-length novel. As I was brainstorming pet ideas for a girl who grows up fairly isolated from others, I decided to try something unusual. So the lovely Evangeline Hamilton makes a pet out of an big black boar. She’s raised this feral pig since it was a baby, and her older brothers de-tusked it, not willing to let her keep it otherwise.
She named the beast Hezekiah since it should have died after being abandoned out in the wild but was given a new lease on life. And to help guard that life, Evie makes sure to tie a big red bow around the boar’s neck every time they go out adventuring to ensure no hunter will shoot her pet by mistake.
In the novella I’m currently writing, my Posse inspired me to include a cat, and he’s causing all kinds of mischief.
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So what are your favorite animals to share real or imagined adventures with?
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If you could pick an unusual pet for me to have in one of my novels, what would you suggest?
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My daughter had a pet guinea pig, which was fun to watch and to pet. In addition, it was smart enough to get out of its large aquarium home. One morning I found it resting outside my bedroom door. When I got up to take our dog out for a rest break, I thought the guinea pig was a sock on the floor. I quickly found it to be the guinea pig, plucked it up off the floor, and returned it to its cage so the dog wouldn’t eat it. Another time I was the only one at home, was talking on the telephone while sitting in a living room chair, and the escaped guinea pig tiptoed across the room. I was able to snatch it up again and return it to its home. He was an escape artist!
Too funny, Suzanne. Sneaky little creatures, those guinea pigs. 🙂 It wasn’t a pet, but there was about a 6 week period several years ago that we had a mouse running loose in our house, and I was the only one who ever saw it. It became this family joke that I had a mouse delusion. Mad dash along the garage wall? No one but me bears witness. Darting under the couch? Again, only Mom notices. Finally we caught the poor thing in a trap and I had the evidence to prove I was NOT delusional, but part of me actually felt kind of special that I was the only one who saw it. THAT might be a tad delusional. 😉
A wolf hybrid—I had a wolf hybrid (wolf and Alaskan Malamute) for approximately 12½ years. He was a beautiful animal–had different howls for his different moods–& loved to go for walks in the snow! He looked like one of the sled dogs on a Disney movie!
So interesting. I was at a wine festival with my daughter in California where a wolf rescue team had a booth. We had our pictures taken with one. The group gave out information about adopting wolves. Have you read Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult?
That would be a majestic pet. And fierce, I bet, too. Great idea, Barb!
I loved reading about Helios and Hermes and also Lewis and Hercules. The pets added to the story. We live near Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, where they have Clydesdale horses in the England/Scotland section, so I have a good understanding of the shire horses. Easier to picture what you write about.
Over the years we have had several dogs and one cat. Our last animal was our cat Rascal, who really was a rascal and very personable. After he died 14 years ago, we made the decision not to have anyore pets. As you said, it is difficult to take care of pets and travel. We have a daughter and grandson who live in California and were beginning to travel more.
I’m about to finish Heart on the Line, and have enjoyed the part Helios and Hermes played.
Rascal sounds like a wonderful addition to the family, Betty. Impossible to replace, I’m sure. I’ve been having fun writing a rascal of a cat into my current project. He’s causing all kinds of matchmaking mischief. Ha!
So glad you’ve enjoyed Heart on the Line!
I love the Black Stallion books! Still have them. 🙂 And I love naming animals also. I had 2 kitty names chosen before we even found our kittens! Mabel and Monet. Love the alliteration. I enjoyed reading about your childhood and pet affinities. 🙂
Love those names, Angie! Mabel and Monet. Quirky and fun, and with an historical flair that this historical author loves! 🙂
I had a pet duckling we found abandoned in a Dairy Queen parking lot, and she was by far the most amusing and beloved pet I’ve ever had. She was crying and walked right up to me, so I picked her up and, rather than let her die, took her home. She imprinted on me and acted like a real child–loved to cuddle, cried when I put her in her box at night or left her alone too long, adored getting wet. She followed me everywhere (or if I needed to move faster, I’d put her in my jacket pocket, until she got too big). She really liked climbing up on my shoulder under my hair (which I liked less, as her diet of primarily worms went through her rather swiftly). My husband is still jealous of Sonja, even though she was gone before our wedding.
And there is little more fascinating than watching a week-old duckling succeed at slowly–slowly–gulp after gulp–swallowing down a fat, stretchy nightcrawler.
Eww. Great vivid picture of worm eating, Rachael. Ha! I love that you had a duckling. So fun and unusual. I remember driving through town one day and stopping at an intersection to wait for a mama ducks and her string of about four ducklings to waddle across the street. No ponds in the vicinity beyond the water in the drainage ditch, so I have no idea what she was doing there, but she used the cross walk. It cracked me up!
Oh, my goodness, Karen. Another thing we have in common–we both loved the Black Stallion series when we were kids. I read them all.
As for pets–I’ve had dogs, cats, parakeets, turtles–even a chicken. Yes, Karen, an unusual pet you might use in one of your books might be a chicken. Mine started out as a fluffy little baby at Easter when children were given such gifts. Most of those sweet creatures died, but for some reason mine continued to live. It would wait outside for me to come home and follow me all around. It would answer my call. I loved that chicken. But then one day I came home, and it was gone. My mother said “to the farm” because it was getting too big to keep in the city. I was glad we didn’t have chicken for supper that night.
Ha! Love that chicken story, Beth. 🙂
I don’t have any new ideas for pets but I have always loved the idea of a pet pig:) My parents have a large, white dog whose personality I can see fitting in with the characters in your books. He’s part Great Pyranees, part Anatolian Shepherd, and part something-else-large-but-I-can’t-remember-what.
He loves to catch you by surprise and lick your face. I was sitting on the porch one evening and trying to keep him from slobbering all over me. I turned my face away from him and he hit me with his tail. I whipped back around to avoid flying fur and he licked me on the nose, then just sat there looking so pleased with himself! Gotta love animals 🙂