Pets: An Anthology

Pets: An Anthology is a literary anthology about pets. It includes essays, fiction, poetry, and art by writers on their pets. I was going to blog about every piece in the anthology but then decided to just blog about the pieces by the authors I've met in person.

Introduction by Jordan Castro

Jordan's introduction seemed refreshingly concise and non-belligerent, while also being generous and intellectually stimulating, to me. It begins with a brief paragraph that ends with Jordan recommending "that the reader turn now to the first page and begin." Jordan has two dogs. One of them, which I think he inherited, is named Bugsy. I like this video of Bugsy.

The Measure of Love by Michael W. Clune

Michael's essay is about his dog Laila. Michael has a distinct, Clune-esque, empathetic-yet-relentless sense of humor, which made me laugh in his essay and has made me laugh before in his memoirs White Out and Gamelife. He's also good at conveying interesting information in original language that changes how I view things. From his essay:

I read somewhere that, for a dog, sniffing represents the same vivifying aesthetic function as looking does for humans, and so as I admired the skies of June, I modified my pace to enable Laila to experience the summer scentworld.

Franny by Patty Yumi Cottrell

Patty's essay is a meta-essay about writing about her dying cat Franny. It was one of my favorite pieces in the book, emotional and funny and informative. Her essay also discusses her book Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, which I recommend:

When my brother committed suicide, I wanted to know everything about it. I scoured his closet for clues, and there were medical records detailing his attempt to donate his organs. I reached out to a friend of his from grade school. I eavesdropped on people's conversations at the funeral. I wrote about a book about that. When I finished it I felt better.

Dudu (2007-) by Tao Lin

My essay is a first-person version of a chapter of my forthcoming novel Leave Society. It's focused on Dudu. I like toy poodles a lot. Here's an essay about two toy poodles my family had when I was growing up in Florida. I also had two fish tanks in Florida—10 gallon and 50 gallon. I liked arranging rocks and plants in the fish tanks so the fish would have variety and places to hide and explore. I feel emotional and humble when thinking about my lonely child self interacting with fish.

The Great Bird Search by Nicolette Polek

Nicolette's essay is focused in part on the vagueness and uncertainty of memory. The search referenced in the title is a search through her memory for information that she wants to put in her essay about pet birds she had as a child. It includes three tiny photos, including one where a bird seems to be reading a newspaper:

This one is sitting on a banker lamp, reading the "news." I woudl tape various paper "books covers" on the lamp for the bird to "read," though it chewed on the paper instead. This bird looks mostly white.

Hat and Bonnie by Chelsea Hodson

Chelsea wrote about being obsessed as a child with wanting a dog, and having a subscription to Dog Fancy magazine, but not ever getting a dog because her mom was allergic to dogs and cats:

Instead, we had between twenty and thirty desert tortoises and box turtles in our backyard at any given time. My parents had adopted a few from an animal sanctuary, and I named them after things they reminded me of: Hat, and Bonnet (who we referred to as Bonnie).

Having many tortoises and turtles in one's backyard seems desirable and funny to me. Chelsea's family also had one other pet: "Fluffy, the Mexican red-knee tarantula."

Frankie by Kristen Iskandrian

Kristen wanted a cat but ended up with a dog, Frankie. Her essay is written from a perspective of three years after adopting Frankie from the Humane Society. Two days after bringing home Frankie, Frankie started barking—"sharp, loud, and continuous." This reminded me of my childhood toy poodles who would often bark loudly and continuously in a way that felt frustrating as we tried to watch TV or talk on the phone. Dudu only barks intermittently, and not too loudly, since she is so small. Frankie also destroyed things and "peed and shit all over the house." My childhood toy poodles also did this, but not Dudu. Frankie seemed to be a medium-to-medium-large dog, while my childhood toy poodles averaged 5 and 8 pounds, making their destruction, pee, and poo smaller.

Rainbow by Precious Okoyomon

Precious' essay is also about a toy poodle. I've met her toy poodle, Rainbow, around 10 times and once took care of him for around a week. Rainbow was quiet and calm and seemed wise and Zen. He liked to sit in the highest part of the room where he could sit, on a pile of blankets and pillows on the sofa. When I had sex, he would become active and try to lick me and my partner's groins. In dog runs in parks, Rainbow seemed to avoid the other dogs and enjoy doing things on his own. I recommend Precious' Instagram for more Rainbow content.

Midget by Scott McClanahan

Scott wrote about his great-aunt's chihuahua, named Midget. It's in five parts and includes Midget's death. I strongly associate chihuahuas with Taco Bell due to their commercials, and it was good to have new chihuahua associations. Chihuahuas seem kind of like furless, tan/brown toy poodles.

Chickens Are Real by Blake Butler

This was another of my favorites in the book. Blake wrote about the many chickens he and his wife Molly had, including many that died for various reasons. Some of the chickens' names: Bing Bong, Crusher, Magic Johnson. His essay is also about his dad and Alzheimer's. You can read it here.

Assignments by Yuka Igarashi

Yuka has one of the briefest essays in the book. It's about a pet snail she got from her kindergarten teacher. Yuka named the snail Emily and fed her lettuce and watermelon. "She was greedy and thorough, and this made her seem happy and smart to me," wrote Yuka. The essay also includes a scene where Yuka's dad bashes her mom's head against a door. I feel more interested in snails since meeting Yuka. I read a 500-page book on snails and write about snails in my next novel. Snails seem to promote the opposite of some of the worst-seeming parts of modern society—rushed, crazed, violent.

Grace Haikus by Mallory Whitten

Mallory contributed four haikus and four drawings about her dog Grace. The first one is "when she eats yogurt / she holds the container with / her paws, face submerged." The drawing for it shows a container that says "yogurt," Grace's head from the eyes up (the rest is in the container), and, in front of the container, her two front paws, holding the container. I think my favorite of the four haikus is one about how Grace likes to chase lights around and how she "doesn't understand."

Me and Duchene by Sam Pink

Sam's piece is a short story with a strong plot, shifting perspectives, and fight scenes that include guns and knives. It made me laugh. Sam relates the sound of a gun firing by writing "BOP." One sentence reads simply "BOP BOP BOP BOP BOP." Another sound Sam writes about is of a man choking. Sam writes it like this: "The man choked like 'glekk glekkkk.'" A favorite thing of Sam's writing of mine is his descriptions of sounds. I've tried to do this more in my writing, and have found it rewarding and somewhat difficult.

Training for Rio by Annie DeWitt

Annie's essay is about horse-riding. Annie seems to know a lot about horse-riding. I liked learning about professional horse-riding. Annie describes a man named George Morri as "the riding world's Gordon Lish."

Other authors in the anthology: Christine Schutt, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, David Nutt, Mark Leidner, Raegan Bird, Ann Beattie,  Kathryn Scanlan, Sarah Manguso.