4 Favorite Pets in Books
About 85 million families in the U.S. own a pet. And that's in the U.S. alone!
I've owned cats and dogs for most of my life. For Love Your Pet Day, I'm showing a little love to the best pets in my favorite books.
Ampersand in Y: The Last Man. If you haven't read Y by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, you're missing out! It's my favorite graphic novel series about the only man who survives the global wipeout of men. His pet Capuchin monkey Ampersand is his companion throughout the whole ordeal, which is pretty stressful as you can imagine. I fell in love with graphic novels because of this series.
Hedwig, Crookshanks and Fang in Harry Potter. I couldn't pick just one pet from the Harry Potter series so I included a few favorites in this list. Cats are my first love (especially grumpy-looking cats like Crookshanks) but you can't deny the loyalty that Hedwig shows Harry and Fang shows Hagrid.
Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. Excuse me while I cry over here thinking about this book. I read it when I was in elementary school and it shook me to the core. Wilbur eventually grows out of his role as Fern's pet, and the book is more about friendship and loss, but I still think it deserves a spot on my list.
Nana in Peter Pan. "As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse.” (Can you imagine a giant Newfoundland peeping into baby strollers? Adorable.)
Honorable mentions (who I don't want to talk about because they make me too sad) go to: Yeller in Old Yeller, Marley in Marley and Me, Flag in The Yearling, Dewey in Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World...you get the picture.
Who are your favorite pets depicted in books?