Frustrated by the frequent negative response, I've stopped asking fellow baby boomers that question. How could they not have read the 26 Freddy the Pig books by Walter R. Brooks (who also created TV's Mr. Ed)?
Like all of the animals on the Bean Farm, Freddy could talk. But that was nothing. He could do so much more, as you can tell by the title of some of his adventures: Freddy the Cowboy, Freddy the Magician, Freddy and the Spaceship, Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars. And that's just off the top of my head.
The most epic of all was Freddy the Detective, which belong in every Sherlockian's collection. After reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Freddy decides that he, too, can become a master of disguise and deduction. The cover illustration shows him wearing a deerstalker cap, holding up a magnifying glass, and wearing a false bear. Why, with the clever disguise he looks like . . . a pig wearing a false beard. But no matter, it's a great book. I have three copies. All of the Freddy books have been reprinted in recent years, so getting a copy at a reasonable cost isn't hard unless you want a first edition.
A few years ago a former colleague gave me the t-shirt above. It's produced by an organization called Friends of Freddy that has a great website. If you've never entered the world of Freddy the Pig, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
Who (or what) is your favorite Sherlockian animal?
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