The Cat's Meow
A Siamese cat gets locked into combat with a bear in the wilderness and imagery is used to convey the unnatural quality which allows the feline to intimidate the ursine attacker. "The cat uttered another banshee scream and stepped forward with a stiff-legged, sideways movement, his squinting, terrible eyes fixed on his enormous adversary." The reference to the legendary Irish mythic creature of the banshee immediately creates a sense of terror. The further description of the cat's bizarrely unnatural movement and behavior serves to intensify this terror and allows one to identify with the bear's shock and awe.
The Bull Terrier
The stocky, short-legged breed of dog known as the bull terrier is not particularly famous for its ability to swim. "He swam in jerky rapid movements, his head held high out of the water, his little black eyes rolling fearfully; but he was a bull terrier, a `white cavalier.'" The jerky quality of the dog's swimming ability is easy to imagine. The juxtaposition with the imagery of the "white cavalier" becomes more ironic when one understands that bull terriers earned this nickname because they were preferred by members of the British gentry who enjoyed showing them off as they rode through the countryside in fine horse-drawn carriages.
The Dog and the Cat
The Siamese cat confounds the expectations of many animals, including the terrier. "The old dog in particular moped badly, for the cat had been his constant close companion for many years—ever since the day when a small, furiously hissing kitten, with comically long black-stockinged legs and a nearly white body, had joined the Hunter family." At one point these two unlikely animal bosom companions get separated and the dog spirals into a depressive state. His memories take him back to the first meeting and the imagery of a hissing cat immediately winning over the then-regal dog seems almost as unlikely as the cat scaring off a bear with a banshee scream.
Into the Wild
The three domesticated animals are experiencing their first adventure in the untamed wild. Imagery helps to create the sense that things are not like they were in the secure comfort of a house at night. "Once an eerie wail like a baby’s crying woke the old dog and brought him shivering and whining to his feet; but it was only a porcupine, who scrambled noisily and clumsily down a nearby tree trunk and waddled away, still crying softly." Of all the animals the dogs and cats could come into contact with that might seem exotic in the Canadian wilderness, the spiny porcupine is probably the strangest in appearance. This bizarre presentation of quills atop a lumbering shape gains even greater mystery and menace from its weird wail.
