We didn’t know October was Adopt A Shelter Dog Month last year when we took in Sadie, our seventh homeless pet. We’d gone the purebred route when we were younger, but once we learned how many pets never find a home, we decided to adopt whenever we added a dog to our family.
Oddly enough, once we stopped buying dogs, we still ended up with purebreds. Our mixed to pure bred ratio is about even, with a Westie, Great Dane, Beagle and probable Rhodesian Ridgeback vying with a Cocker Spaniel mix, a German Shepherd mix, and a Louisiana Catahula Leopard hound mix in our adoptee line-up.
Adopting a stray or shelter dog is all about second chances for the dog, which marries up well with my writing. One day I realized I wrote about second chances in love. I think my fondness for this theme stems from personal experience. My husband and I met when we were nineteen, dated seriously, broke up, and went our separate ways. Four months after we reunited, we got married.
Our second chance worked out tremendously well and I guess it became the framework of my writing. I like giving story characters another chance at true love. My attachment to this theme shows up in my Tassanoxie series and I adopted the slogan, Small town...Second chances to highlight it for readers.
When you celebrate Halloween this year, remember there may be a shelter dog out there who’d like a second chance at love.
