If you could pick any fictional animal to be your lifelong companion,
what would it be?
If I could choose any fictional animal as a lifelong companion, I’m not sure I’d go for a dragon, a Pokémon, or some majestic creature from a fantasy world. I think I’d choose Muttley.
Muttley is the scruffy cartoon dog who appeared alongside the villainous Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races and other animated shows. He is famous for his distinctive wheezing laugh, usually heard when someone else’s grand plan has gone badly wrong.
Muttley is not noble. He is not particularly brave. He is certainly not obedient. He is cynical, self-interested and usually more interested in laughing at Dick Dastardly’s latest disaster than helping him avoid it. And yet people seem to love him.
Part of the reason is that Muttley sees what everyone else can see: the whole thing is ridiculous. Dick Dastardly is forever plotting and scheming, taking himself and his plans terribly seriously. Muttley stands beside him muttering, wheezing and snickering. He barely needs words. That laugh says everything.
In some ways, Muttley is the audience inside the story. He has a wonderful ability to puncture self-importance. He refuses to pretend that nonsense isn’t nonsense.
There is something rather appealing about having a companion like that. Someone who will not let you be too impressed with your own plans. Someone who notices the absurdity of a situation. Someone who reminds you that sometimes the healthiest response to life is simply to laugh.
Muttley is also wonderfully expressive. You always know what he thinks. If he is unimpressed, you know it. If he thinks you deserve what has just happened to you, you know that too.
And yet there is something strangely loyal about him. For all the muttering, complaining and laughter, he keeps turning up. Dick Dastardly launches another ridiculous plan, and somehow Muttley is still there.
That may be why I’d choose him. Not because he would make life easier. He probably wouldn’t. But he might make it funnier.
And perhaps a lifelong companion does not always need to protect you, impress you or make you better. Sometimes it might be enough to have someone beside you who sees the absurdity of life, stops you taking yourself too seriously, and is still loyal anyway.
The Afterword 
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