Scrawny, Deaders, and Lady Delores Raphus Schilling: Trawling the Depths of My Imagination

It's all very well writing poems about Scrawny and his friends, but where did they come from? The simple answer is my imagination. Consciously or unconsciously, my imagination 'borrows' from long formed traditions in literature, animation, films, artwork, or even real-life events. We all have this trait, but some of us can draw all these experiences and observations together and turn them into stories, pictures or art. It's time to look at some of those traditions and apply them to my characters.

Narratives involving ‘cat and mouse’ in literature, film and cartoons, generally involve scenarios of pursuit and evasion based on the cat trying to capture the mouse for his lunch.  In turn, the mouse usually outwits the cat and escapes with a laugh.  This dynamic covers various themes, including power imbalances, psychological manipulation, and survival struggles. 

According to Cielle Kenner (1), this trope of ‘cat and mouse’ features a cunning antagonist with a determined protagonist in a high-stakes game of wits.  She goes on to state that this scenario is a staple in thrillers and mystery genres, mixing tension, excitement and intellectual engagement.

In stories specifically involving cats and mice, rather than the metaphor tales, you can find many examples; Aesop’s ‘The Cat and The Mice’, Tom and Jerry, Famous Fred (albeit the mouse is replaced by a guinea pig), An American Tale, amongst others.  T S Eliot famously wrote ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’ which notably has no cat and mouse stories, rather stories of cats with mice in them, but always with the cat keeping the mice in order.

Whilst I have Scrawny in my narratives, and his friend Deaders (a dead mouse), they don’t follow the traditional ‘cat and mouse’ trope.  Their relationship is fundamentally based on this, but Scrawny, rather like Tiger from An American Tale, loves mice and could never eat one.  He considers them his friends. 

Scrawny is born of my love of cats and of lately being allergic to them.  As I cannot have one, and I love them a great deal, I decided to introduce one to The Freakshow, an illustrated poetry book I wrote around five years ago.  Scrawny is never mentioned by name, but he’s on nearly every page and his persona has grown over the years.  I suspect his friendship with mice has come from Tiger, from An American Tale, but this trope is used to explain how Deaders came into existence.  Scrawny is definitely an amalgamation of pet cats I had before I became allergic, with some distinct human character traits thrown in to aid his interactions with other characters. 

Deaders is a hard-nosed, deceased mouse who was accidentally killed by Scrawny. He is the butler to Lady Delores Raphus-Schilling, an extinct dodo.  Deaders is your mouse no matter what you need to achieve.  He knows all the right people, and they all owe him a favour.  He runs rings around Lady D, but she hasn’t a clue.  A mouse was an obvious choice to run alongside a cat, but also fits perfectly with a scruffy Victorian freakshow.

To add to the mix, I introduced Lady Delores Raphus-Schilling. Her name implies much. Delores was the lucky mascot I would send my girlies to school with on exam days. Consequently, the name has warm connotations for me. Raphus is part of the Latin name for a dodo, Raphus Cucullatus. Schilling is to denote that Lady D is an upper-class extinct dodo with a name denoting Victorian money. Deaders is her butler (as outlined in above). Lady D arrived in my narratives to give Deaders deeper background and to give him more scenarios to bounce off as a character. 

As dodos go, there is little connection to me.  Obviously, Lewis Carroll wrote of dodos in Alice in Wonderland.  I have previously blogged about Carroll and his influences on my work.  There is also an animated film by Aardman, The Pirates, that contains a dodo as a character.  I’ve watched the film several times and love it for the music, amongst other things.  I think in both cases, the dodo has subconsciously struck a chord with me.  Mostly I find their aesthetic interesting and their demise fascinating.  They’re such a silly bird, that Lady D had to be one as a character. 

With my characters thus far, I particularly enjoy the mix of an imaginary cat, a dead mouse, and an extinct bird.  The irony is not lost on me.

Being in the early stages of this research, I’m still undecided on how best to get the narratives onto the pieces, but it will come.  Suffice to say, I utilise a cat, a mouse and a dodo to tell a story in 3D form using clay.  Nobody gets hurt, no-one is chased and feels threatened.  It’s a play nicely scenario.

My stories are all in rhyme and are based on scenarios that run in my head.  They are fuelled by character observations, are stuck in past times, and are a simple source of personal amusement.  Their interactions balance humour, melancholy and imagination.

In essence, the ‘cat and mouse’ narrative is a versatile framework that can be adapted to various contexts to explore complex themes related to power, conflict, and survival. Adding in further characters and situations potentially creates a whole load of fun…

References

Cielle Kenner (2024) Cat and Mouse.  Available at: https://medium.com/cozyshewrote/cat-and-mouse-6c5b7738b870(Accessed 30 July 2025)

Eliot, TS (1939). Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. London: Faber and Faber

Tom Simondi (3014) The Cat and The Mice.  Available at: https://fablesofaesop.com/the-cat-and-the-mice.html (Accessed 20 July 2025)