“In 1986 we moved from
Montreal to Chapel Hill. In due
course we acquired a house and
a cat, Whiskers. An Austrian woman
who wished to write something
on my fiction, came to stay with us.
She photographed Whiskers and
me in the front yard. Later when her
work won a prize in Austria, Whiskers
appeared with me in all the Austrian
papers. I told him about his fame
abroad, but he was not impressed.”