Tag Archives: animals in romance

Favorite animals in literature

Updated on February 25, 2013 by Janet Mullany

or, less high-falutingly, the aaaaw factor.
Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Definitely cuter than Jeremy Northam, smarter than Orlando Bloom, more adept at drilling its way into hazelnuts than Sean Bean and the rest… Muscardinus avenallarius aka the dormouse, aka the hazel dormouse, dory mouse, sleeping mouse, sleeper, seven sleeper, or chestle crumb. Shown at left in one of its typical pursuits, the dormouse spends about three quarters of its time asleep, including a hefty hibernation from fall to spring.

The dormouse is native to Europe and in England lives mainly in wooded areas and coppices in the south. Because of changing agricultural practices and the destruction of ancient hedgerows, the dormouse is now a protected species.

Lewis Carroll immortalized the dormouse in Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, where the dormouse is subjected to various indignities (to keep it awake and either encourage or prevent it from speaking), including being stuffed into the teapot.

Byron (yes, this is the Regency tie-in) made this comment on life:
When one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation), sleep, eating and willing, buttoning and unbuttoning–how much remains of downright existence? The summer of a dormouse.

Inviting your favorite rodent stories and reminiscences, or comments on Shakespeare, St. George and dragons since I’ve just noticed the date and realized any of those would have been a more appropriate post!

Janet
winner of first annual BWAHA award, Series Historical for Dedication

Posted in Reading | Tagged animals, animals in romance, classic novels, classics | 6 Replies

Furry and funny

Updated on July 9, 2011 by Elena Greene

Last week while I was on vacation, I read Jennifer Crusie’s ANYONE BUT YOU. It was a hoot, a perfect beach read, and featured a “cookie-snatching, walk-avoiding, marathon-sleeping” dog who came close to upstaging the romance.

I like animals in books. They add color and humor and always tell you something about the main characters. Some authors put animals into every book. I think almost every Mary Jo Putney book I’ve read has a cat in it somewhere. Laura Kinsale’s “mascot animals” range from a pig to a shark.

I don’t try to write animals into every book, but there are a few I think of fondly.

One of my favorites is the hero’s horse in my first book, LORD LANGDON’S KISS. I based him on Jack, a horse I used to ride while I was on international assignment in England (sadly deceased of a fatal case of colic). I loved Jack! He was the perfect gentleman; his owner told me the only time he might turn headstrong was if a hunt came nearby. In that case, she warned me that he would join the hunt and told me to just hang on, trust that he would jump anything in his path and that he would settle down after a few miles. It never happened but what an opportunity for Regency research that would have been!

In SAVING LORD VERWOOD, the h/h rescue a seal pup (incident inspired by a visit to the Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall). I hoped they would put it on the cover, because it would have been something different. I was told a seal would be too cute. So they put ducks on the cover instead.

In LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, the heroine had a bunch of foundlings living on her estate, so I gave them a menagerie of pets, including a hedgehog that peed on the hero (based on a real incident at a nearby nature center).