Who is Pinkus and Jack?

Pinkus and Jack were simply my childhood cats, adopted from a cardboard box at the farm down the street. Pinkus nearly died shortly after adoption, but my mom nursed her back to health. Jack was the kind of cat that hunted snakes in the backyard and dropped them at my feet while I was watching TV. The cats worked in harmony to steal a leftover Christmas ham from the refrigerator as soon as I swung the door open. I've never seen felines use their claws and teeth so efficiently.

In the story of Muffin Cat, Pinkus and Jack serve as his royal ancestors. When you read about Pinkus and Jack, along with Lucy and Patty, you are just reading about my flea-ridden childhood companions. It's these companions, and all of their nipping and shedding, that first taught me how to take care of the vulnerable.

Pets teach us all. We have to look after them and keep them from running away. We feed them, clean up after them and we learn not to treat them too harshly when they make a mistake. Even though they don't speak, we learn to understand them. We learn how to have boundaries because of our pets...it's boundaries that kept me from getting bit more than a handful of times.

Not mentioned in The Adventures of Muffin Cat is Fred. Before Fred got out of the house and was struck by a car, he was my playmate. I vividly remember putting on puppet shows for him. It's our pets that first teach us how to make friends. They teach us compassion. I jumped on the bed and cried for Fred. Admittedly, I cried the same way when I got dumped at a roller-skating party. Our pets teach us how to feel. Today, I FEEL for people who are mistreated in our communities. I FEEL for the children in Gaza. Sometimes, I even cry. Tears don't make you weak, they make you understanding.

Pinkus and Jack is now my publishing company. The Adventures of Muffin Cat, Further Adventures in Muffin Land and others will be published under this umbrella, with the goal of encouraging kindness, compassion, and empathy in children (and adults). If we can't figure out how to love those who are different, who's language is unfamiliar, who's skin tone doesn't resemble ours -

we must ensure that the next generation does.