Rawhide Robinson Rides the Tabby Trail
This is Miller’s second western featuring Rawhide Robinson. A line in the first few pages sets the tone: “It was the late 1870s – or maybe 1880 – or somewhere thereabouts…” Miller and his protagonist care more for entertaining than being factual. And that’s just fine. Robinson tells some tall tales to his crew on the way from Chicago to Tombstone, Arizona, but the reason for the trip itself is the tallest tale of all. Robinson has read of Tombstone’s rat problem and come up with an ingenious solution. In Chicago, with the help of scrappy British orphan Benedict Bickerstaff, Robinson has assembled one thousand cats. That’s right, one thousand cats and he’s going to herd them from Dodge City to Tombstone.
Setting aside the impossibility of herding cats, this is an enjoyable yarn. Robinson has the undivided attention of his crew each night as he spins tales of competing against the legendary Annie Oakley, using chili peppers to thaw out frozen cows, and harnessing a lightning bolt to light the way to track down a herd. The only note of alarm comes from a cat rustler who siphons off a hundred or so cats with catnip, hoping to profit from cat pelts. But dastardly Buckshot Zimmer is foiled, and Robinson and the rest are hailed as heroes in Tombstone when they bring their more than one thousand cats (numbers swelled by litters along the way) to that rat-infested town. Those cats will make Tombstone and the O.K. Corral famous, the mayor is sure!
