and Dogs...
The dogs (and some of the women) I’ve known always seem to find their way into my books, and they make wonderful secondary characters except for a tendency to take over and run the stories themselves.
My first dog was a Labrador Retriever named Jet. He tried to teach me about not piddling on electric fences, but some people only learn things the hard way. His companion was a Great Horned Owl named Hooty. Originality in names isn’t real important when you’re only eleven.
Bluey—the irascible Jack Russell Terrier in THE SPECIALIST—is typical of many Jack Russells I’ve known over the years in Australia, and is neither the best nor the worst of them, even if he did threaten to bite my b**** off if I even tried to show his picture. Rough-coated and rough in temperament, a true Tassie rum’n, he’ll be back in another thriller I’m planning, but it will be started by one of the most amazing dogs I’ve ever known…
The
chocolate Labrador Retriever bitch FOOTHILLS MOCHA MAGIC—Magic—kicks
off this new thriller-in-progress in her own inimitable style…as
a guide dog competing in a retrieving trial, handled by a blind man
and judged by a dead man.
Magic actually deserves a book all of her own. I bred and trained her as a retrieving trial dog, but she decided she had a higher calling in life, and went on to become the guide dog for a blind friend of mine. Magic and John Whitton actually did compete in retrieving trials, for several years, much to the consternation of several retrieving trial judges and the delight of the Tassie dog trial people. R.I.P., Queen of Dogs.
Magic’s son Trader—Foothills Fair Exchange—his auntie
Lala—Foothills Murphy’s Law, and his grandmother, Molly—Avoca
Gunmoll, all played cupid in LOVE
THY NEIGHBOR. Trader was born with
a heart murmur and two vets said he’d never live past six months
or make full size. Problem: they forgot to tell him! He had a long
and productive life, even sired pups. Lala was born in a dog trailer
at a retrieving trial. All gone, now, but never forgotten. R.I.P.
My
first German Shorthaired Pointer, Langenohr Nick, held his own
in THE EVERYWHERE
MAN, and a Labrador x Boxer named
Sheba taught me
more than I taught her about dog obedience (which involves training
people, actually) and held a good supporting role in Victoria Gordon’s
first romance, THE SUGAR
DRAGON. No pictures of either seem to have
survived, except in my mind.
Wrangham Ladybird—Lady—the working-bred English Springer Spaniel in FINDING BESS was my last Australian dog, and in many ways the most memorable. When I left Tasmania and came back to Canada in 2000, Lady went to Queensland to run the household of Mike and Jane Dredge, who were reasonably normal people before she got there…or at least as normal as Golden Retriever people ever get. Sadly, Lady tangled with a venomous snake in September/05, and lost. RIP, most memorable of my canine family.
Sid Drew’s Chesapeake Bay Retriever, RT Ch Morago Son of Clipper CM—Rooster—played cupid in BEGUILED and BEDAZZLED, then I borrowed his name and persona (Sid’s not the dog’s) and used them in THE SPECIALIST because I needed a character like that. Rooster’s actually prettier and has a better temperament, but what can you do?
And
now there’s Pandora. Pandora’s actually Deni’s
dog, or was until she met me. Fickle creatures, females. Pandora’s
mother was probably a Norwegian Elkhound with damned poor taste…we
think she fell into lust with a coyote. Pan hasn’t got into a
book yet, but probably will, sooner or later. She was a pound puppy,
has enough neuroses to keep a pack of psychiatrists busy forever. And
no, she isn’t in jail (although she ought to be)…just on
the porch.