Prosaically pragmatic concerns like this aside, what makes it unlikely that anyone would ever dare to give Bond a pet to care for is the character’s supposedly unnurturing nature. 007’s pet would have a shorter life expectancy than your average Double-0 agent. With his globe-trotting lifestyle, any animal unfortunate enough to live under the roof of his bachelor pad would not only be starved of affection, but also, unless his housekeeper was very diligent, food. Perhaps it’s wise that the various screenwriters and novelists over the last seven decades have resisted giving James Bond an animal to care for. Porter has identified no fewer than 28 different incarnations of the character, each with their own chronology and continuity, and not one of them has been a pet owner.

Bond himself has had way more than nine lives. With the Bond film producers announcing that the next Bond will be a “reinvention”, it strikes me that this is the opportunity to finally give him a pet. It goes on and on in my head… James Bond: pet owner? I examine the evidence, drowsily replaying snippets of scenes from Bond films in my mind: loosely connected moments where dogs and cats feature in shots or in dialogue, one free associating with another…Īlec Trevelyan in GoldenEye sneering at Bond’s loyalty, equating him with one of the Queen’s dogs (“Her Majesty’s loyal terrier”).Īnd: Irina being told to “take a hike” by Zukovsky after Bond asks “who’s strangling the cat?” I capitulate of course, and having soporifically filled three cat bowls - spilling half the contents but sating my felines’ craving for feasting on warm human flesh (specifically: mine) - I return to bed, desperate to return to sleep. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is usually the time when my own cats decide it’s time to get up and start clawing my arms, feet, face or any other exposed bit of flesh in the hope that I will get up and feed them.

These are the kinds of profound questions that keep me awake at night.Įven when I have plenty of far more pressing concerns in my life, these pet-related problems are persistent nocturnal visitors, popping into my brain with alarming frequency at around 4am.

Is James Bond more of a dog person or does he prefer cats? Is the character himself more like a cat or a dog? Do the Bond books and films reinforce stereotypes associated with these animals or subvert them? What do people’s pet preferences say about other aspects of themselves?

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