User Profile

Character Name: Chester Monroe
Character Series: Bunnicula series(Children's series by James Howe)
Age: Adult Cat
Background:

Chester is the feline member of the Monroe family. The Monroe family is made up of Robert and Ann, the parents, their two children Peter and Toby, and the family pets, Chester(orange tabby), Howard(adult dog) , Howie(the dachshund puppy who Chester is convinced is part were-wolf), and Bunnicula(the bunny Chester is convinced is a vampire). Chester came into the Monroe family as a birthday gift to Robert, along with two volumes of G.K. Chesterton and a first edition of Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'. Although he was named Fluffy for a short period of time, Chester's name is derived from G.K. Chesterton, the English writer. As Mr. Monroe, a college professor, bounced his lectures off Chester(if Chester didn't fall asleep, the lectures were considered a success), Chester has developed a knack and interest in reading. In the Monroe household, all the family members are treated with respect to their intelligence, even the animals. The animals are thoroughly included in the conversations and kept abreast to information and happenings in the household and the world at large.

When the Monroe's find a baby bunny in the movie theater while watching Dracula, Chester suspects that Bunnicula is a danger to the household. Armed with his books, Chester attempts to kill, starve and torture the bunny for the sake of his family and their lives! He is convinced that Bunnicula carries many vampiristic traits, such as flight, hypnotism, levitation, and of course, sucking bodily fluids(or in Bunnicula's case sucking the juices out of vegetables). After trying to starve Bunnicula by warding him away from the fridge with garlic and taking his food before he can eat it, eating the food himself, trying to stab the bunny with a sirloin steak, and hunting down the vegetables that Bunnicula drains to stop the spread of vampirism and Bunnicula's evil minions, he eventually considers Bunnicula a member of the family and starts to protect him instead of trying to murder the bunny in cold blood.

Due to Chester's antics with Bunnicula in the first book, the Monroe's decided to take him to see a cat psychiatrist twice week, Dr. Verruckt Katz. He takes his therapy very seriously. Because of his therapy, he has given up reading Edgar Allen Poe at night. Once he decided that he had been right about Bunnicula being a vampire, that was the end of it. He stopped reading The Mark of the Vampire and instead started reading books like Finding Yourself by Screaming a Lot. So he screamed, which he calls 'getting in touch with your kittenhood'.

Throughout the series, Chester has had many theories and plans, all revolving around the fantastic. He has been convinced that Bunnicula is a vampire bunny out to conquer the world with his army of vampiric vegetables, that there was a murderer loose in their kennel while the Monroes were on vacation, that dangerous spirits were upon them and that all the animals are in danger of being turned into robots as part of an authors disturbed personality and evil plan. According to Harold, Chester announces that everyone is doomed on an average of twice a week.

Personality:

Chester has a rather active imagination, less politely referred to as neurotic and paranoid. Being as he reads mostly fantastical fiction including mystery, the paranormal, supernatural fiction, horror and of course Stephen King, he has a tendency to take it as truth. He also gets quite hysterical rather easily. Chester's version of reality doesn't often match with with the dictionary definition, and like a car needs to have its oil checked, the cat needs to get his reality checked every once in a while-- just to make sure it's still there.

Despite this, Chester is an intellectual cat with an immense amount of determination and planning. He is always the first to take charge and construct plans to solve any situation(real or imagined). He is also always the first to change the plan and his entire belief as to what the problem was, and claim that everything worked exactly as he intended.

Being a cat, it takes him about 20 minutes to find a sitting area that is comfortable—taking his time to circle, sit down, pause, stand up, look around, circle, sit down again, repeat 10 million times. Being rather intellectual he considers himself above(or at least much more intelligent) than his other animal companions(*cough*dogs*cough*), namely Harold. He often refers to his animal companions as 'idiots', 'dolts' or 'simpletons' and any mistakes he may make during his adventures are quickly turned around as 'a slight misinterpretation of the facts'. He uses this when he mistakenly tries to stab Bunnicula with a steak instead of a stake.

Howie, the youngest member of the household, is rather attached to Chester and refers to him as 'Pop'. Unlike Harold, Chester does not believe in 'shielding' the puppy to the dangers of the outside world and frequently explains his crazy and frightening conclusions to the him. While Chester may think himself above the two dogs, he considers them both family and true friends, as he does for his people family. Rather than deal with Howie's tentative grip of reality and a runaway imagination, Chester has taken to humoring and indulging him. Rather than explain to Howie what he's doing wrong, why what he wants is impossible or pull him back to reality, the cat will send his imagination flying (and in the process get him to shut up).It's simply easier. He will tell him that 'he has a telephone call in the other room, and it's very important', or that Howie should 'go work on his acceptance speech as he's just been elected president'.

After all the people go to bed, Chester goes to the bookshelf and selects his midnight reading, usually from Mr. Monroe's study, and curls up on his favorite chair. While on his favorite chair, Chester has a tendency to shed, quite a lot. He also loves milk. While he may occasionally compliment someone truthfully, usually when he compliments someone he wants something. For example, he once told Harold he liked his eyes. And when Harold when over to the mirror to check he took his spot on the rug.

In true cat fashion, Chester hates water(he also hates being kissed on the nose). Unfortunately his antics have a tendency to get him dirty on occasion and he ends up stuck in the sink. Chester usually spends his nights in Mr. Monroe's office curled up around whatever new book he happens to be reading from Mr. Monroe's shelf, ranging from fantastical fiction to the classics. His favorite activities are lounging in the sun, reading, and protecting his family from the dangers of the fantastic—namely vampire bunnies, aliens, evil crows, dachshunds that are part were-wolf and of course murder! As a cat, Chester isn't scared of dogs, he merely considers them beneath him and is very much a friend to the two dogs that share his household. Despite his attitude toward dogs and their intelligence, Harold and Howie once he becomes a member of the family are the first companions Chester goes to when faced with possible danger(real or imagined).


Item Lost: Ordinarily I would say Bunnicula would be his most important memory, however I felt that it would impede the the amount of his memories regained. Instead, he will be loosing the Mark of the Vampire, the book which he used to attempt to kill Bunnicula, as it was such a focus of the first book.

Friends (0)

Friend of (27):