Lynn Jonell is one of my favorite fantasy writers. I recently reread her story, The Sign of the Cat, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The main good character is a boy Duncan who can speak cat; the main bad character is an earl who thinks eating kitty pot pies will enable him to speak cat. Obviously, cats are very important, and Lynn Jonell does her usual delightful job of characterizing them. Here’s an excerpt that describes the meeting of a white kitten named Fia and a tiger—right after the tiger bowls over Duncan. I hope you can get a glimpse of Jonell’s humor and characterization.
He (Duncan) waited for the end to come, his heart beating like the wings of a moth. But the end didn’t seem to be coming. Instead there was a lot of high, furious meowing and low, anxious growling.
“I’m sorry, already! I wouldn’t have knocked him over if I’d known he was a king’s man!” The tiger’s rough tongue licked up one side of Duncan’s face all the way to his eyebrows, depositing a fair amount of saliva. “Is he dead? Why isn’t he saying anything?”
“Get OFF him!” shrieked Fia. “You must weigh a TON—look at him, he can’t even BREATHE!”
“Oh, all right,” grumbled the tiger. “Calm down. You don’t have to be so piercing. I have sensitive ears.”
“You have sensitive ears?” Fia’s meow scaled up even higher. “You probably just broke all his ribs, you overgrown tomcat!”
The tiger made a chuffing sound of exasperation. “How was I supposed to know he came in the name of the king? I was already pouncing before he said anything!”
“Did it ever occur to you to ask?” Fia demanded. “Or are you stupid? Did someone drop you on the head when you were a kitten?”
Duncan would have laughed if he had had the air in his lungs to do it. Kittens weren’t known for their scolding abilities, but Fia had learned from the best—her mother, Mabel—and had developed a fine cutting edge to her meows.
“I wasn’t a kitten; I was a cub.” The tiger’s voice was turning sullen. “I said I was sorry. You don’t have to insult me.” (page 192-193)