The Pet Ravens of Charles Dickens

> Actually, Dickens made a bit of a habit of stuffing his dead pets. When his cat Bob died, for exam­ple, he had one of his paws made into a letter opener.

Being a guy with a couple of aging cats, this actually had me stroking my figurative beard. I wonder if this letter opener paw had one shiny, sharpened, metal claw as I'm led to imagine it? Sounds pretty cool, something any reasonably awesome family would keep as a cherished heirloom.

(And how did I overlook such a great name for a cat)

If you love the idea of Dickens’ Ravens, check out Drood by Dan Simmons. It’s a fictionalized account of the last five years of Dickens life told through the opioid addled haze of fellow author Wilkie Collins, a Dickensian-David Lynch mashup dripping with Victorian detail and luscious shadows.