the cats of “stray cats”: part 2

My novel Stray Cats has been out for almost a year, and many people have read and loved it. A question I get asked is, “Are the cat characters real?” Unlike the canines from its predecessor, Lost Dogs, the felines from Stray Cats are all based on actual pets I’ve known.

All of the real-life cats were so complex and interesting, that I could only portray them in broad brushstrokes in the book. If you’re a cat lover, spare me a few moments, and I’ll tell you all about them and how they made the transition to the page. If you haven’t already, check out Part 1 of this series, where I talked about the main character, Pimmi, the black cat that’s featured on the cover.

“Pharaoh” & “Mister Muffins”/Gandalf

The premise of Stray Cats is that cats really do have nine lives, but instead of living them one after the other, they live them all at once, on different worlds. On her adventures across these worlds, Our Feline Heroine Pimmi makes the acquaintance of two odd fellows who are the same cat, just with different names, living on different worlds. They are “Pharaoh” and “Mister Muffins,” and they’re inspired by my real-life cat, Gandalf.

Gandalf came to live with us in November, 2009. My sister-in-law Alice had adopted him from a shelter near Pittsburgh, but she was moving, and couldn’t keep him. The paperwork from the shelter said that his name was “Pharoah” (Alice had renamed him on account of his gray color), and that he was about three years old.

Very quickly, we determined that Gandalf was not typical. He seems to be deaf (or at least mostly deaf) in one ear, the result, maybe, of a previous infection that hadn’t been taken care of. Perhaps because he can’t hear well, he meows very loudly. In fact, he’s the most vocal cat we’ve ever had: in addition to meowing and purring, he chirps, trills, yowls, and makes all kinds of weird noises one might not expect from a cat.

“Weird” is the operative word when discussing Gandalf. Maybe because of the prior ear infection, he often tilts his head to one side. The head tilt throws off his balance, so he walks sort of sideways, and for a cat, he’s pretty clumsy, having fallen off our counters more than once.

We have a large box of Legos leftover from when our daughters were little, but we can’t get rid of them because Gandalf likes to sleep in the box. Not sleep on the box of Legos, but in the box of Legos, like a fakir with a bed of nails. Yeah, seriously.

He’s been known to steal dry dog crunchers. He slops his wet food around all over the counter while he’s eating–I thought cats were supposed to be tidy? In his younger years, he used to catch birds and eat just their heads–their whole heads, beak included. He’s fixed, but nevertheless, we once caught him trying to…ummm…become amorous with one of the girls’ Webkinz.

Though we were assured that Gandalf was an indoor cat, he’s actually not, prowling about the perimeter of our yard and sometimes wandering into other people’s. At least he’s had the sense to stay out of the road. He and our neighbors’ cat Ron (whom I’ll talk about another time) had a long-running feud of Ali-Frazier intensity that waned only because both of them grew too old to fight.

Inside the house, he sometimes plays with the real-life Pimienta, and keeps a respectful distance from Sophie, our calico. He’s always liked all our dogs, sometimes sleeping beside them.

Because he’s very affectionate and cuddly, he’s one of our favorite pets: my wife Joni has nicknamed him “Kitty Boy” and “Sideways Kitty.” He loves for me to cradle him on his back in my arms. Gandalf will often hold a conversation with me, meowing in answer when I talk to him.

In Stray Cats, most of the felines are not aware that they have simultaneous lives in multiple worlds, but “Pharaoh” and “Mister Muffins” do. Indeed, they’ve learned to “Stare,” or to peer into other worlds and see what’s going on with their alternate selves. In this passage, Pharoah explains it to Pimmi and another cat named Rheylenna.

Staring is when you sit still for a long time, with your eyes closed, and listen to nothing—

—and then you fall asleep, Rheylenna said.

No, not all the way asleep. You go to the edge of it, and float there for a while. Then you open your eyes, slowly, to stay at the edge, and then you look just past the thing closest to you. And then they’re there: all the worlds. All the Everythings.

The worlds? Pimmi asked. Isn’t there only this one?

No, there are others, and on each, there are cats. On some of them there is me. On some of them, there are you.

I’ve had dreams of myself in other places, Pimmi said.

Any cat can Stare, Pharaoh told Pimmi, but most have never learned of it. Most who have, haven’t learned how. And some who have learned both, don’t want to. 

Why not?

Because sometimes, you may not like what you Stare at, or what Stares back at you.

FROM Stray Cats

To reflect Gandalf’s weirdness, Pharaoh and Mister Muffins randomly say nonsense words–“Puffaluffabean” and “Podwoddle” are two–while they’re speaking. They often have odd takes on situations: at one point, Pharaoh seems to enjoy the fact that he’s in imminent danger of drowning.

We’ve had many cats over the years, and Gandalf has one of the biggest personalities. At the time of this writing (May 2023), he’s about 17+ years old, and in declining health, but he still enjoys his meals, his afternoon saunter in the front yard, and curling up in bed at night between Joni and me [Update: Gandalf passed away in May 2025, after this post was initially published].

More About Gandalf:

• Gandalf looooooooooves ear rubs. If you start rubbing his ear, he’ll close his eyes and lean in, pressing the side of his head against your hand so that the rub goes all the way down into the depths of his ear. I mention his fondness for ear rubs in Stray Cats.
• Perhaps because of his poor balance, he’s never been one to climb trees.
• While Gandalf gets along well with our female cats, he used to bully and pick fights with a male cat we had named Mooch. Eventually, they worked out a truce.
• In addition to hunting birds, Gandalf also used to catch squirrels and small snakes. We never wanted him to be an outdoor cat, but when we tried to keep him inside, he wore us down by peeing all over the place and yowling at all hours.

Come back soon, and I’ll tell you about Rheylenna, Roland, and some of the other cats of Stray Cats.

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Kenton Kilgore writes killer sci-fi and fantasy for young adults, and adults who are still young. He also dabbles in children’s books. Follow Kenton on Facebook for frequent posts on sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction. You can also catch him on Instagram