Author Confessions: Author Pets
One of my fave pics with Spatzle. I had him for 10 wonderful years.
Funny, I almost typed author pests. Maybe there is some truth to that because I sit and write I sometimes have a puppy plop into my lap or pull at my pants for attention. Sometimes they can be a pest.
Benji with my hubby, Ben. He picked us and we loved him for a short 18 months.
Some authors use their animals in their fiction. I did model a dog after my Spatzle when I wrote Donuts and Detours. That was the image I had in mind when I did that. Of course, my book reviews have been done by my dogs for many years now and that has been fun.
The sad part was when I had to say good-bye to a dog. We got Benji to help Spatzle in his old age and it worked but he passed away in early 2022 and never had a chance to write for me as Spatzle did such a great job. Then we adopted Cooper because Spatzle was grieving and that gave us many more months with my sweet dog. Spatzle passed away at the end of 2022 Cooper took over for Spaztle on the blog. We never got him a companion because he was happier as an only dog. Cooper died February of this year (2024) as his health deteriorated so rapidy.
Cooper was silly and fun, we miss his antics.
Marley was with us for too short a time. We were sad to lose him too.
Oliver keeping watch. He reminds me so much of Spatzle, but is far more hyper and affectionate.
The day after we put Cooper down, I found Oliver. A 6 month old, and the same breed as Spatzle had been. Because our grief was great, we adopted the puppy. I didn’t want a puppy. Too much work. I wanted it potty trained. I discovered that “mostly potty trained” meant I still had messes in the house. Ah but Oliver is a cute little shenangiator and we’ve come a long way since we got him after we put Cooper down.
Two weeks later we adopted a senior dog, Marley, to help Oliver learn how to “dog”. It helped a lot but we only had a few short months with sweet Marley. Anticipating Marley’s death, we got an Amish puppy mill rescue who was three. Minnie was terrified. She’s come a long way since then but we hope that these sweet pups will be with us for a long time to come now. Marley had been our fourth senior dog to be put down in a little over two years. That’s a lot of heartache.
Minnie has a lot to learn but she’s getting there!
Now these younger pups bring life and laughter to our days. When my hubby is off working on his various projects, they keep me company and I can’t sit at my computer for hours like I used to before dogs came into my life. That’s a good thing although I do find it sometimes annoying.
Many authors do have pets. But then, many humans do. Being an author can be isolating and having a devoted fuzzy friend can be a comfort on any day and a delight on many of those with their shenanigans.
Since I’ve started adding Oliver and Minnie and having them share the book reviews here on the blog I figured it would be good to let you know where the other ones have gone. They may not be in our home any more but they are forever in our hearts.
