[HPforGrownups] Re: Crookshanks name defined

[Silverthorne]

No: HPFGUIDX 96967

AmanitaMuscaria now - Sorry, I just thought the name was descriptive -
the cat is mentioned as being distinctly bowlegged, or 'crooked
shanked', thus Crookshanks. I have a feeling it's a witch's cat's
name from a children's book, but this is long gone in the mists of my
memory..


{Silverthorne}
Well, I don't recall a children's book with *Crookshanks* in it, but the
name calls to mind T.S. Eliot's 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'--a
collection of poetry about unusual (and unusually named) cats that the
writer did over the years for his friends, and that was later compiled and
transcribed into the Broadway play 'Cats'. Although I cannot find a
"Crookshanks"...there *is* Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat. Perhaps JKR was
influenced by both this collection of colorfully named cats as well as
Hermione's familair's looks when she created Crookshanks?


Anne/Silverthorne