Puppy Power

Yesterday, I was working on a scene for the new book.  (Sentenced to Death.)  In this book, one of the characters has a cute little dog.  It's a bison-friche named Sarge.  Sarge is very protective of his owner.  He thinks he's a Doberman.

Sarge doesn't have much to do in his second scene, mostly because . . . he isn't in it.  It gets complicated and I don't want to give any spoilers away.

I'm a cat person.  I'd like to be a dog person, but circumstances have never allowed that.  I grew up having cats, but when I was 16, my parents got their first dog, Mac, a Scottish terrier.  They've had terriers ever since.  (Jessie is the most current.  Isn't she cute?)

But even Jessie is too big to play the part of Sarge.  Instead, I decided my cousin Joanne's dog, Leisha, was just about the right size.  (This is Leisha this past Thanksgiving.  She was sitting on her Gramma's lap, and I don't think she felt too comfortable up there.  She's much cuter with her ears up.)

I've been thinking of Leisha (and I'm not even sure of the spelling) for some time now.  She's so cute, and while I don't see her very often, she's wormed her way into my heart.  Or, rather, a fictional version of her has. ever since I wrote Bookplate Special.  So I'm not surprised that Sarge has shown up in Sentenced to Death.

So, yesterday, I was thinking about Sarge's next scene.  I needed some dog information and whipped off a couple of emails to my author friends Doranna Durgin, who has dogs, and Sandra Parshall, writes a veterinary mystery series.  I knew they'd have the answers I needed.  But while I waited to hear from them, I went to Google Images and found this picture and posted it on Facebook.

Whoa!  I cannot believe the amount of interest little Sarge (or a generic Bison-Friche) could muster.  In all there were 41 comments (and, yes, I made a few of them).  One thing's for sure, Sarge is going to be a BIG hit.  Not only do my readers already love little Sarge, but they had suggestions on how I should integrate him into the story--a story they have no information on (plot wise).

How cool is that?

Needless to say, I think I'm going to have some fun with Sarge in the future.

So, what do YOU think of him so far?