I’ve been painting animals the last week or two. I don’t know any of them. Most are for the Faulkner book I’m illustrating so you could say they’re imaginary. But they’re real to me. At least for the time it takes the ink to dry.

I never met Simone the cat but know she died and that her owners miss her. I painted her portrait for money, but, I hope, it doesn’t look like it.

I’ve had a few animals in my life but none for very long. Dex the rottweiler from the street had to be put down for heartworms; Porkchop the chihuahua/papillon mix hated me; Gustav the cat was old when I met him. I had to dig him a hole in the backyard.

K has a cat called Tomás that I hear stories about. He likes to run away and has to be brought back sometimes. He’s a stray who was caught and fixed by her neighbor years ago. One day he broke into K’s house and decided to stay.

Animals are like that sometimes.