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We Love Bookish Pets: A Gallery of Our Furry Friends + Our Books

Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

Every time I blink, there is a new animal in my house. It started slow, as these things do sometimes. One cat. Then two. There was a period of a couple of years where two seemed like the end point. We added a third about that time and held our course for a while.

Somehow, a rabbit was introduced, followed by a kitten (he was found outside!), and then a foster kitty.

If you’ve done the math, that comes out to roughly 12 cats and 16 rabbits in my house.

While the rabbit has an unfortunate habit of enjoying my books for snacks—and she has very unfavorable opinions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix out of the series—my animals for the most part coexist well with the ever-growing, close-to-tumbling, towers of books.

This post is for animal lovers and book lovers. I asked fellow Book Rioters who were up to the task to share a photo or two of their animals alongside some books.

Of course, I’d love to see your favorite pet and book photos, too. So enjoy our collection and leave a contribution of your own in the comments.

Books + Pets = Awwww

 

Hollandaise felt so strongly about Order of The Phoenix that she took care of both the front and back cover for lunch.

—Kelly Jensen

 

Bleu does not appreciate the humans interrupting his personal reading time.

—Sophia LeFevre

 

 

Don’t let the scarf fool you. Waffles is definitely more of a Hufflepuff than a Gryffindor.

—Susie Dumond

 

 

Bernadette has been getting into audiobooks lately, so her’s a photo of her sitting on a cloud (or my duvet cover) listening to book 2 of Kristin Lavransdatter.

—Jesse Doogan

 

 

Jack would like you to read him some LGBT fairytale poetry.

—Alice Nuttal

 

 

Oopsilon’s (“Oopsie”) favorite book is How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety (pictured, open)—and she’s wondering why I haven’t yet.

—Abby Hargreaves

 

 

This is my grandlizard Cheeto, a leopard gecko, who enjoys reading with her humans.

—Heather Bottoms

 

Bobo is actually our child’s lizard but considering how much she loves to climb over MY books when I’m reading, I think co-ownership is more suitable. And of course her favourite is “How to Train Your Dragon” – she thinks the idea of ‘training’ any dragon is hilarious.

—Ann-Marie Cahill

 

Linus is very disappointed at the amount of books his cat mom owns but hasn’t read yet.

—Amanda Diehl

 

 

Eliot says you can’t read Harry Potter right now, I’m reading it.

—Katherine Packer

 

 

Lusa and I are both book lovers. The question is: Who has first dibs on the TBR pile?

—Steph Auteri

 

 

You’ve never called me SOME DOG. Explain yourself.

—Stacey Megally

 

Marlowe thinks it’s exhausting working his way through the complete plays of the writer he was named after.

—Alison Doherty

 

 

Farrokh and Zevon at 10 weeks old, posing with what could be the title of their memoir.

—Liberty Hardy

 

If you like animals and books, you’ll be interested in some excellent cat bookends, excellent dog books for readers of all ages, and even some heartwarming animal books.