"Kool K-9 Kapers"

[Valerie Anne Faulkner]

I was just wondering...

Has anyone used their pets in their writings?

Do you have a 'fun thought' or a paragraph from one of your tails "Tales?"


My dog Jake, plays himself in , "I Must Be in Heaven, a promise kept."
"Infamous Jake" spotlight... http://valerieannefaulkner.blogspot.com/

[Janice Cantore]

I didn't use my pet per se, but in my novel, The Kevlar Heart, the main character is a K-9 officer. As I wrote about her dog, I often thought of my own, not only how they behave, but how they make me feel. The character dog, Hero, was a conglomerate of several police dogs I have seen work. By the way, my two babies are labs, Jake and Maggie.

[Valerie Anne Faulkner]

Ahh... I'm gonna go check your site. Are they on-line?

BTW, I work with my hubby and one of our customers adopted a huge shepard that had worked for the police. The dog was unbelievable... but at five yrs. old was gonna be put down. (too old!) The woman took the dog, to save it's life... and what a GREAT dog she has! Weighs in about 130 lbs. and is perfect with her... (She's about 5'2" and maybe 115 lbs.)

[Janice Cantore]

I don't have my kids on-line, my site is a work in progress, I've changed it about four times in the last couple of months. Most of the police dogs I knew were family members when off duty. On my department the officers owned the dogs and most kept them as pets when they were retired from service.

[Jeannie]

In my current WIP I haven't, but in my second project I will be adding my two dogs. I have two female papillion's. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that breed or not, but they are classified as lap dogs. A lot of Royal's had them, and other nobility. They get to be about 10-15 pounds full grown. My dogs were the runt's of the litter's. The oldest, Faleen, she's about 4 1/2 pounds. She's seven years old. And then the youngest, Halley, she's about 8 pounds. She's 6 1/2 years old. Both have been a complete joy to have. I can't imagine my life without them.

Valerie, do you have a pic. of Jake posted? I would love to see a picture of him. He sounds adorable.

[Valerie Anne Faulkner]

Teeny–tiny… you said ‘lap dogs’ and all I could think of is my, licky-lab-lapping-‘em-up! I’ m only joking… He wouldn’t hurt a flea. I’m sure Jake would love them.

My son has a Boston terrier (about 20 lbs) and since the terrier is not that great a swimmer, he literally ‘rides’ on Jakes back in our pool. Jake doesn’t bat an eyelash… he‘s okay with being a doggie float. My hubby and I guess he’s the only breed that would also go home with the burglar; wagging his tail the whole time the ‘goods’ went out the door. He's just a gentle giant!

I’m not familiar with Papillion’s… do you have any pics? I suppose I could check on-line, but usually those don’t shine with personality… like home pics do. And BTW, I do have a Jake photo on my web-site. http://www.imustbeinheaven.com I couldn’t get the pic to post on my blog. I still have a bit to learn about blogger.

What’s your new book about? (Besides Papillion’s)

[Jeannie]

I saw your pic. of Jake, he's adorable. :) I love labs.

I do have pictures. I tried posting some on my page, but it didn't work. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong. Was it difficult for you to post your pictures on your web page?

My new book is a romantic suspense like my WIP. My working title is The Seventh Hostage. My heroine and hero are caught in a hostage situation in a bank hold up. They are held in there with several others. At the end of the 72 hours, there are only 7 left in the bank. That's including the last two bank robbers standing. One of the early twists is that my heroine, Rylie, knows two out of the four bank robbers. :)

My dogs play as Rylie's dogs in the story. I'm still in the early stages of this, so I'm not sure how long she's had them for. Right now I'm thinking she will have had them since they were puppies of course, but that would have been 7 years ago. I like the idea of her having them for awhile, instead of just adding them in there.

[Wendy Lynn Decker]

Not sure if you meant our "real pets" or "fiction pets." I use my real pets as spring boards for ideas for my fiction pets. Here is an excerpt from my middle-grade book where pets can bring humor and be used to teach a story at the same time. Hope you like it: Excerpt from "THE BEDAZZLING BOWL"

“Okay,” she said, and we took off for the backyard. Samson and Delilah followed us. I bent down and stuck my hand underneath the deck and turned on the sprinklers. Kimber and I ran back and forth through the water giggling and splashing, and Samson and Delilah played chase. I was having tons of fun, but not long after, Kimber said she was bored.
She picked up Samson from the ground and dangled him at her side. “What kind of names are Samson and Delilah?” she said. “I never heard of them.” She said it as if I’d made them up or something.
“They’re from the Bible,” I said, not sure if she was just testing me or if she really didn’t know. “Everybody knows the story of Samson and Delilah!”
“Well I don’t. Tell me,” she insisted.
I wasn’t too surprised that Kimber didn’t know the story. Mom tells me not to keep God all to myself. It took me awhile before I understood what she meant. Then I found out there are many kids in my school who’ve never read the Bible. Kimber is one of them.
Samson squirmed to get loose, and Kimber dropped him to the ground. She plopped down in the grass and crossed her legs Indian-style. I sat in front of her in the same position.
“Okay, this is the story,” I said. “Samson was an important man in the Bible. God liked him a lot. He gave him a special gift. He gave him long hair and it made him very strong.”
“How strong—stronger than Hercules?” Kimber asked.
“Stronger than anybody, ever. No one knew what made him so strong. It was a secret. Samson knew a lady named Delilah. If she discovered his secret she could get a lot of money. She begged and begged him every day to tell her. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and he told her the secret to his strength. He fell asleep that night and Delilah cut off all his hair! She got her money and Samson lost his strength.”
Kimber switched leg positions and stuck her chin out like a turkey. “Is it true?”
“Sure, it is. Every story in the Bible is true,” Isaid, pretty sure I was right.
“Do you want to play, ‘Samson and Delilah’ with your dogs?” Kimber asked with what her dad calls her Kimber-licious smile. I’ve seen that smile many times, and think he should call it her Kimber-vicious smile.
I’m always looking for a new game to play. I said, “Sure, what should we do?”
“First, we need a pair of scissors,” she said.
Kimber always knew how to turn a dull day into an interesting one. I raced toward the house. I yanked open the screen door to the kitchen and rummaged through the junk drawer until I found a pair of scissors. I hurried back outside. Almost out of breath I asked, “What next?”
“Let’s pretend that Samson is like the guy in the Bible, except if we cut his hair, he won’t be able to bark anymore!” she said it as if she’d just invented Monopoly or something.
I thought about it for a minute. Samson barks at everything. It would be so cool if it worked—I knew it wouldn’t—but it sounded fun. Mom would be happy. It would save her a trip to the groomer.
I held Samson in place while Kimber cut his hair. A small chunk of wet fur fell to the ground. He didn’t seem to mind.
“Let me cut a piece,” I said. “It’s my dog.”
He rolled over on his back. I cut a few more pieces. Samson began to squirm and Kimber couldn’t hold him anymore. She handed him back to me and then snipped some more of his fur. More and more fur fell to the ground. Samson’s wet fur spread all over the ground and all over us too.
Then Kimber brought the scissors a little too close to Samson’s tail. He let out a bark I’d never heard him make before. I let go of him. He took off like a cheetah. He ran clear across the yard and hid underneath the deck.
Mom stuck her head out the back door and yelled, “What’s going on?”
“We’re playing a game with Samson,” I said like everything was fine.
She came out of the house. “What kind of a game?” She asked in a voice that knew there was more to the story.
“We were pretending that Samson wouldn’t be able to bark if we cut his hair off,” I said in my extra, extra fast voice. “Kind of like Samson and Delilah.”
Mom’s face had mad written all over it. Exactly like the day I used her favorite lipstick to make a hopscotch board on the driveway. Come to think of it, Kimber came up with that idea too

[Valerie Anne Faulkner]

How cute. I like this.

Reminds me of my sister and I when we were kids. We had a collie named Laddie... he was very old; around for as long as I could remember. My sis decided to feed him part of her peanut butter sandwich. That was my first experience with seeing a dog eating the sticky -gooy treat. (They lick their chops for about ten minutes. )

I can remember laughing so hard we cried.

Poor Laddie!