Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work, as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

In his journal entry for April 4, 1962, Indiana notes that he began work on six small canvases, each measuring 12 x 11 inches. The page includes a sketch of each work, Eat, Route 66, BB, The Mirrored Eat, Up, and Pet. Next to Pet a note, added at a later date, states that the work was gifted to Margaret Kessberger in the 1980s.

In the entry Indiana also details an evening spent with curator Campbell Wylly, whom he almost missed at the Museum of Modern Art. The two of them stopped by Stephen Durkee's place, Indiana noting that Durkee's drawings did not fall handily into Wylly's standards for his show, so he went away empty handed, but with the promise from Durkee that he would do something special for him. The two of them then went to Indiana's loft for dinner, where Wylly said he liked all of the is small canvases with the exception of Pet, which Indiana noted "will probably be no one's favorite."