Dogs as Characters in Fiction

I often am asked, “Do you base some of your characters on real people?”  Well, fictional characters are just that:  made up in the author’s mind.  However, there’s no denying that there are often ‘real life’ figures who sometimes serve as inspiration.   And, as I learned this year writing That Summer in Cornwall, the same goes for dog characters.

However, just to show how tricky a subject this is, you should know that this Border Collie actually is known by another name as a ‘real-life’ member of the Cornwall Search and Rescue Team…  In my novel, the Border Collie T-Rex–aka Rex–became the name I gave my hero Sebastian Pryce’s dog after I met this dog, seen here having coffee at the famous Poggio’s Trattoria .

Say hello to the real T-Rex…the Great Dane, affectionately known by his intimates as “The Mayor” of a maritime village in the San Francisco Bay Area. This big boy truly was what inspired my naming this important search-and-rescue dog who figures prominently in the novel.

(Well…at least, both boys’ coats are black and white).

And both animals have tremendously good hearts—to say nothing of their amazing noses—and, of course, I asked permission of the original T-Rex’s mistress, artist Lucinda O’Connell, if I could “borrow” his moniker.

And then there was the heroine’s dog, a sheep-herding Corgi from the pastures of Wyoming.  The sassy, smart little dog started out in the first draft with the name of “Jasper”—called that in honor of my godchildren’s ‘real-life’  Corgi.

But there was just one problem:  Jasper the Corgi is a boy dog with a boy dog’s name, and as I got into the plot, there were some very compelling reasons to make “him” a “her”—especially since the two dogs have a memorable “meet-up” in Chapter One—much to their human companions’ chagrin.

Therefore, in urgent need of an appropriately feminine name, the first thing that popped into my head was my friend, romance writer Cynthia Wright ’s late, great black lab, seen here with her daughter, Jenna.  So “Jasper” was transformed, via a “global search and replace” on my Mac, into “Holly”– along with profuse apologies to my godchildren Andrew and Grace.

So, there you have it!  Life in the fictional world can be just as rough as Hollywood…and some of the best performers are left on the cutting room floor…