The Literary Pet of the Month Is Fantastic Mr. Fox

I wasn’t planning to adopt a dog when I stopped in to Sean Casey Animal Rescue in Brooklyn five years ago. I only wanted to buy cat food. Under a stack of boxes, I stooped for the food to find a small dog with enormous ears sitting in a crate. His eyes reminded me of my French grandmother’s and he was a Papillion, the French word for butterfly. I texted his picture to my friends, who wrote back almost to the one: NO. I went home and didn’t sleep. You don’t get to decide when kindred spirits show up. You either upend your life to make space for them or you don’t. The next morning when the employees arrived to open the shelter I was waiting. I named him for Roald Dahl’s book, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

When I write, walls grow around me that seal sound out and me in. The souls of cats are older than time—they easily cross from world to world. My cats step over me as I type, a stray paw on a space bar. No manners. Mr. Fox’s soul, however, is fresh out of the gate. He sighs and stretches and sleeps outside these walls until I’m finished, and then we go for a walk—he is my guide back to the “real” world. He hates camping and when phones ring on TV shows, loves my mom who calls him her “granddog,” owns several sweaters and one tuxedo. When he’s happy, he balances on his hind legs and claps. He has an Instagram account, to bring awareness to shelter dogs and to help other souls find their mate. As Gertrude Stein said, “I am because my little dog knows me.” 

Instagram account: @mrfoxthepapillon

Enter your own pet for Literary Pet of the Month through our Submittable page.