I’ve owned, or rather ‘been owned’, by two dogs. And both have enriched my life immeasurably.

First was Ladybug, a white and brown spotted floppy-eared mutt.

Adopted from a farm, she joined the family soon after my ninth birthday. Smart, active and curious, she’s part of all my family holiday memories and major young and early adult milestones.

When she crossed the rainbow bridge at almost fifteen, I was over a thousand miles away at university—and my heartbreak was such I didn’t think I could ever go through that kind of loss again.

Then, as English Rose grew, the clamour for a dog increased.

She sent me web links with dogs to rescue. She researched dog breeds. And she made a persuasive case for why our home and family weren’t complete without a four-legged canine member.

I began to relent and when she found a hound advertised by a local shelter, I fell in love with another pair of floppy brown ears, soulful eyes and wagging tail.

When I saw Floppy Ears, a beagle and Walker hound mix, through a window of her foster family’s house, there was no doubt she’d soon be coming home with us to her forever home.

Around a year old and found abandoned in a small-town dump, Floppy Ears wasn’t a puppy like Ladybug had been. Yet, in many ways, she looked like an older, bigger version of my beloved childhood pet.

And in the past nine years, sweet Floppy Ears has made her own place in my life and heart.

She’s celebrated each Christmas with us and shared family birthdays and cottage adventures.

We went through pandemic lockdowns together, and she’s been alongside English Rose for her middle, high school and university years.

Floppy Ears is cherished family, and although I already dread the day when we have to say goodbye, I’m trying to focus on and be grateful for the love and joy she unstintingly gives.

These two special dogs are why dogs also appear in all my books.

From Shadow in my first book, The Cottage at Firefly Lake, to Lady in my first Rose Warner WW2 British home front story, The Teacher Evacuees, and Cookie in The Hero Next Door, first in my Strawberry Pond series for Harlequin Heartwarming, dogs of all shapes, sizes and ages are important characters in their own right.

Two have even merited covers:

Cookie in The Hero Next Door, and Cooper and Star, basset hounds in the sequel, A Surprise for the Single Dad, out on May 26 (find out more and pre-order in ebook or large-print paperback here).

As in life, these dogs support the main characters and are true ‘best friends’.

While it’s National Pet month in Canada and the U.S. (April in the UK and internationally), I celebrate pets in life—and books—all year round!