In fact, since I can’t cuddle real cats any longer without ending up with itchy eyes, I found deep pleasure in bringing Patches to life on the page.
But I have lived with dogs and cats, paid close attention to them, loved them all my life, and when I turn to them as characters in a story I know exactly how they will be. I have always had animals in my life, cats when I was a child, both dogs and cats as an adult, though in recent years I’ve grown somewhat allergic to cats so no longer have them in my home. When you're writing animal characters, which you do so well, from where are you drawing knowledge of their behavior?
That doesn’t happen from the human perspective of Little Dog, Lost. In Little Cat’s Luck we see the humans only tangentially as they affect the animals, and because the animals stand at the center of the story I allow them to converse with one another. One significant difference is that Little Cat’s Luck is entirely devoted to the world of the animals where Little Dog, Lost is focused more on the humans. Each book stands alone, but they could also be read side-by-side, compared and enjoyed together. The same artist, Jennifer Bell, did the illustrations, too. I have however written it in the same manner-a story told in verse through a narrator-which gives it the same kind of feel. It’s not a sequel, because it’s not the same characters or the same place (though it’s another small town). You've stated that Little Cat's Luck is a "companion book" for your earlier novel-in-verse, Little Dog, Lost. So I sent her out the window after that golden leaf and then waited to see what would happen. I wasn’t sure, though, how their friendship would evolve.
So I knew Patches would be lost and I knew she would encounter “the meanest dog in town” and I knew she and Gus must be believable friends in the end. When I begin a story, any story, I always know three things: who my main character will be, what problem she will be struggling with (knowing the problem, of course, includes knowing about the story’s antagonist, in this case “the meanest dog in town), and what a resolution will feel like. I began by sitting down to write another Little Dog, Lost, but not with the same characters, so it was easiest to start with a cat. When the idea for this story came to you, was it a seed or a full-grown set of characters and a storyline? It’s a good companion to her earlier novel-in-verse, Little Dog, Lost. In this interview with Marion Dane Bauer, we’re asking about her novel-in-verse, Little Cat’s Luck, our Bookstorm™ this month, written for second, third, and fourth graders as a read-aloud or individual reading books.
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