Human-Animal "Mother-Love" in Novels by Olive Schreiner

Schreiner had precise instructions about her final burial. She was to be with her baby on the top of a mountain in the Karoo, the only child that Schreiner did not lose to miscarriage who died in early infancy, and her favourite dog, Nita,. This article goes in a new direction. It attends to the dog as well as the baby to exam the importance of pet keeping in Schreiner's works. Pets bring nature into the home and in doing so these animals represent the potential for reformation. In Schreiner's novels, humans mother pets, and pets occasionally mother humans. These examples of "mother-love" enrich our understanding of maternity while at the same time demonstrate how deeply Schreiner was thinking about the issues central to animal studies today: concerns surrounding the extent to which animals can maintain agency given the dominance and affection in human-pet relationships.