Rita Mae Brown’s new book adores critters
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 336 views
You gotta love an animal book that ends with the words, “Remember: We left Eden, they didn’t.”
Rita Mae Brown, prolific author, fox hunter, civil- and gay-rights activist, and, most of all apparently, animal lover, tells her life story through the furry creatures she’s cherished, in “Animal Magnetism
Born on farmland just north of the Mason-Dixon line in 1944, Brown spent her childhood around horses, hounds, cats and foxes. There were some people, too, on the sidelines: her mother, a free spirit; an alcoholic uncle, who’d never touch the bottle around her; and kind neighbors, who let her ride horses in exchange for mucking out stables.
But front and center are the animals: Mickey, the cat that sleeps in her cradle; Baby Jesus, the cat that kept her sane while at college in New York City; Major, the “ugliest horse I ever saw,” that loves cats as much as she does; and a menagerie of hounds, owls and foxes, both Catholic and Episcopalian — don’t ask.
