Fuzzy Critters--Redo

I borrowed this topic from Kristen Nelson’s blog Pub Rants, and posted it on Pink Fuzzy Slippers blog. So I'm going to run it here--to fill in one of my days.

When I was growing up, I never had a pet, not even a fish or hamster. Dad didn’t like animals. Don’t know why, maybe it was because the house was already a zoo with nine of us kids running around. Anyhoo, when I turned sixteen I started working for a veterinarian. Someone had dropped off a Great Dane puppy for adoption, the owner lived in the apartment and he didn’t realize how large Great Dane’s got—uh, for general purposes here, Dude was a moron only an idiot would think a Dane was an apartment-sized dog—yes, I know people own Great Danes in New York City, but in Oklahoma? Come on. So, I brought Gretchen home, and she became one of the family until she died during my second semester of college.

I love animals. All animals, even the nasty wildcat that bit through my thick leather gloves. Currently, we have a small menagerie, consisting of fish, guinea pig, cat, and dog, though in the past we’ve had rabbits, hamsters, and horses.

And, yes, I do write animals in my stories. Doesn’t everyone?

Sometimes they are the invention of my imagination, like Inky, the scuttling shadow, or Ted, a Stitch-like six-legged creature from another universe. I’ve also written horses, dogs and cats into my stories. I’ve even written a picture book where the main character, a fly, has a pet aphid. Yeah, I like my critters. I think they give an additional dimension to my stories by way of characterization. The reader can learn a lot about your characters by the way they interact with our fuzzy/scaly friends.

Now, Pub Rants original blog post was basically in response to another blog post about the lack of characters in science fiction/futuristic/fantasies. I find this amazing considering how many writers DO write animals in their stories. They could be your basic dog, cat, or not. Here is a very small sampling:

1. Jim Butcher’s Dresden series—Mister the tomcat, and Mouse, the temple dog
2. Andre Norton & Robert A. Heinlein—cats
3. Jayne Castle’s (Jayne Ann Krentz) Harmony series has omnivorous dust bunnies (LOVE THEM!) Uh, a word to the wise, don’t get on their wrong side
4. Robin D. Owens has various critters throughout her Heart series
5. Johanna Lindsey had a futuristic with saber tooth’s as pet felines
6. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series has fire lizards
And some movies:
1 Star Trek’s Tribbles—cute fuzzies, but bred faster than rabbits
2. Alien (#1) had an orange tabby cat Riley went back to rescue

I know I’ve missed tons of fuzzy critters, but these were the few examples I could think of off the top of my head.

So what’s your take on pets in novels? Love them? Hate them? Will always write some sort of critter into your story?