Stephen King's Pets

Stephen King has a corgi named Molly. He often refers to his dog as a “Thing of Evil” despite her happy and carefree demeanor.

In the original Pet Sematary movie (1989), Church the Cat is played by seven blue British Shorthair cats. Each were trained to do specific scenes and actions.

We had a lot of cats and I chose that gray – it’s a special breed, I’ve forgotten the name of it. It has that really thick, thick, thick fur, and they all look alike. A) They all look alike, and B) I just thought that they were kind of creepy. It looks a little bit like a plush toy. I was thinking that sort of subliminally when the cat comes back to life, it’s kind of like a toy that comes to life. And I think he looks a little bit like a stuffed toy to me, that cat.

Mary Lambert, Director, Cinema Bland, March 2019

In the 2019 remake of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, Church the Cat (full name Winston Churchill) is played by four Maine Coon cats named Tonic, Leo, Jager, and JD. The main cat actors were Tonic and Leo, with Jager and JD as stand-ins. There were originally five kitties cast, but one dropped out due to being a scaredy cat. All five were rescues and were adopted afterward. In the photo shown here from the Pet Sematary premiere, Tonic is on left, and Leo is on the right. Tonic also plays Dewey in Eli Roth’s 2023 horror film Thanksgiving.

Related: Meet Tonic, the rescue cat turned horror actor from Pet Sematary and Thanksgiving