This week on Romance Writers Weekly blog hop, Brenda Margriet asks our group: ”What kind of animal person are you? Do you have pets? If so, how do they influence your writing, or don’t they? What is the most unusual pet you’ve had, either as a child or adult?”

My Facebook feed, is full of animal posts, likes and shares. I love dogs and cats and have had both. At one time my husband and I had four dogs and two cats! Now, we currently have our Leo. With only one pet, we can take him when we go on vacation even though he weighs as much as a small human. He’s a rescue and we were told he’s Plott Hound (NC state dog) and Chocolate Lab.

As far as animals influencing my writing, I only recently added pets to a manuscript. I’m working on a story about a veteran military dog handler searching for his former K9 partner. He meets and falls for a woman who’s training a service puppy whom he also becomes attached. Having the puppy as a major part of the story has been a writing challenge. The dog is another major character and has to be incorporated her into most of the couple’s scenes. They need to interact like pet owners do at home and I’m constantly reminding myself, “Where’s the dog and what’s she doing?”

The most unusual pet I had as a child was a turtle, but wanted a horse. What I’d love to have now is a large salt water aquarium, but I doubt my skills to manage one. Like our pool, it’d probably another ongoing chemistry experiment!