That Cat

On April 19, 1956, Flannery O'Connor wrote to J.F. Powers

This is a review [of The Presence of Grace] from the backwoods and it is very backwoodsy of me to send it to you but I would like you to know that I admire your stories better than any others I know of even in spite of the cat who, if my prayers have been attended to, has already been run down.
My best wishes to you and your family.

The cat evidently is the "favorite" in the story "Death of a Favorite". He is in fact run over late in the story, but having the canonical nine lives returns in triumph. It would have been a shame to lose him, for that would have been to lose the progress of the hard-luck priest Fr. Burner in "Defection of a Favorite." But O'Connor wasn't one to take "sass" from anyone, and as a fowl breeder might not have sympathized with cats.

The two stories, along with one Fr. Burner has to himself (or at least doesn't share with a cat), "The Prince of Darkness", can be found in the NYRB collection The Stories of J.F. Powers.