Identity of "Snuff" from "A Night in the Lonesome October"

I noticed that Norris updated his website at last
(zelazny.corrupt.net) with one entry including the identity of the cat
from A Night in the Lonesome October.

I then noticed that no one had identified the main character, that of
the dog Snuff.

An idle moment of thought and searching, and I believe I have the
answer (which I also emailed to Norris earlier today).

The clues to the identities of the characters lie in the dedications
that Zelazny made at the start of the book: one dedication is to the
author Albert Paysone Terhune. Terhune wrote a lot of stories about
dogs. One in particular -- "His Dog" -- involves a man who discovers
a collie with a broken leg, rescues it, and then the two become
devoted to each other. To the point that the dog -- named Chum --
seems especially intelligent and having an almost telepathic
connection with his master, such that the master sees himself looking
through the dog's eyes at times, and understanding what the dog is
thinking. Therefore, I would bet that Chum is the inspiration for the
main character of A Night in the Lonesome October, none other than
Snuff.

Now back to not idling.

Chris

(mun.ca not mac for reply)

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, Legion wrote:

 > In the book the sentence "I like being a watchdog better than what I
 > was before he summoned me and gave me this job."comes up, so what do
 > you think Snuff was?
I've always assumed some type of deamon. Is is significant that he said
-watch-dog instead of just dog? A Hell-hound maybe? What do the temple
dogs like those in in Lord Deamon do other than watch temples?
Kerebos(sp?) got any relatives?

The fact that he visits with the "elder dog" (Howler?) implies real
dogdom, not just something other in dog form.

What about Jack's several curses? Is there enough info to identify any
of them?

3ch<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->