Sighthounds & Other Strangers

People think their relations with dogs and cats are somehow trivial, a side effect of their more important lives. Not true at all. Lived all my life in the company of dogs and cats. My dad, I have to admit, used to try to run down cats in his car. I never did. Then, when I was 21 and I was in a kind of binge problem thing, I found a kitten curled up outside the porch of my family house. I named him Webster after a cat in a P.G. Wodehouse novelette because I was a precious thing in those days. He made me sober for his lifetime. Big achievement for a cat, eh? The Webster in the Wodehouse story was hell on wheels after he lapped up some spilled brandy. Tore through every cat in the neighborhood and lost part of an ear and other things. Except my Webster got terrified by a squirrel in Philadelphia. My Elliott beat the hell out of every cat in the neighborhood in Salem, NJ. All night, every night. Because I wanted him to? Who knows? Cats can be disappointing AND inspiring. Ever realized that? So did I. But the real saving force was not the bad example of cats but the good, really excellent, example of dogs. Dogs are almost never disappointing. Neither are cats if you treat them right. What this book is about.