Interview with Dax, Bruce Golden's cat

Please welcome my feline guest, Dax!

Dax lives with science fiction & fantasy author Bruce Golden, whose novels have received rave reviews on many prestigious publications such as Asimov's Science Fiction (I bet this has gone to his head!) His novels include Better Than Chocolate, Mortals All, and the upcoming Evergreen. His short fiction has also been included in several anthologies. Anyway, Dax is here today to spill the beans on Bruce. Welcome, Dax!

Bio: Dax was born in 1995, and began life, along with his sister, Odo (recently deceased), as a feral kitten, even though he comes from a very long line of cats associated with author Bruce Golden. However, Dax, unlike his sister, always came to eat when Bruce brought out the food, and adapted to his human friend quite quickly. (His sister had to be caught and coerced, but after a few weeks was as loving any cat could be.) Dax is known to be very human-like and very intelligent as cats go. Though age is beginning to slow Dax down, he still follows Bruce wherever the human goes.

Thanks for stopping by this side of the woods, Dax. Tell us, what type of books does Bruce write?

His first two books, Mortals All and Better Than Chocolate, were both science fiction, as is his latest book, Evergreen. He calls it his finest work in more than 30 years as a creative artist, but I think he gets a little carried away with the superlatives some times. Though he says some day he’d like to write a non-scifi book, I’ll believe it when I see it. He’s written 30-plus short stories, and they’re all scifi or fantasy. The cool thing is that from the very beginning he’s always liked to include cats in his stories whenever possible. He has an unsold screenplay in which a great-great-great uncle of mine, Nomad Muad’Dib, plays a large role.

Has Bruce immortalized you in any of his books?

That’s kind of a sore point with me. You see, in his first book, Mortals All, Bruce chose to include my nephew Jekyll as a character (Jekyll and I are not close. We tolerate each other, though, on occasion, I’ll chase him around, just to let him know who’s top cat.) I’ve been waiting and waiting for Bruce to put me in one of his stories, and he swears that I’m going to be in the book he’s currently writing, as a cat referred to as Prince Dax. The royalty thing’s a nice touch, don’t you think? And so purrrrrfectly fitting.

I like to stare at my mom while she writes to make her aware that she’s ignoring me and make her feel guilty. What do you do to annoy Bruce while he writes?

Lately I’ve developed this really pitiful cry—it would bring tears to your eyes. I’ll wander around the house crying until I get some attention. Bruce gets very annoyed when he’s writing, and sometime he’ll yell at me to shut up. But mostly he just asks me what’s wrong. The joke’s on him. Nothing’s wrong, I just like to cry pitifully to make him feel guilty.

Good work, Dax! Tell us, does Bruce let you sit on his lap while he’s working at the computer?

I’m not much of a lap sitter, though both my nephews, Joker and Jekyll, take turns on his lap while he’s writing. When Bruce was writing Mortals All, Jekyll spent the entire time sitting on the back of the chair (this was before he got fat, and still fit there). That’s probably why he got a part in the book. I’m more of a kneader than a lap sitter. I also like to get up on the desk and lay right in front of the computer, which drives Bruce crazy, because he can’t get at his keyboard to work.

I once tried to sit on my mom's lap, but she said I almost smothered her to death (what a lie!) Anyway, what advice would you give to those pets that have to live with irrational, egotistical authors?

Under the category “Do what I say, not what I do,” pets should give their authors a wide berth during those irrational periods. Don’t bug ‘em, or you might get a box of tissues thrown at you. But you also need to stroke their egos, so rub up against them, turn on the purr, and congratulate them on their accomplishments—even if they’re not making enough money with their writing to buy you the really expensive cat food.


Wise advice, Dax! Thanks for stopping by!