Dear Readers,
Like many of my animal stories, this one is based on a real incident that happened here in the Grand Rapids area in the fall of 2006. A man filmed a young deer with a plastic pumpkin stuck on its head. News reports led to a public discussion about the most compassionate way to handle the situation. People all over the world saw the photos on the Internet and expressed concern. The pumpkin was found five days after the deer was first sighted. (He thoughtfully left tufts of his hair in it so we’d know.) Professionals who worked on the case thought the recent rain and drop in temperatures helped the deer free himself. When plastic freezes, it becomes rigid (like most frozen stuff). That and the slipperiness from the added water helped the deer rub the pumpkin off. But there were no eyewitnesses—this is just the hypothesis.
Of course, we’ve all been wondering if Keisha would get her puppy, including me and my editor, Nancy. We both wanted her to, but hey! Mama’s rules are Mama’s rules. I needed to find a way for the Carters to realistically adopt a domestic pet. One day, as I was walking my dog, Sophie, in the park, we met another adorable, friendly dog, named Simon, who, his owner told me, was part coyote. So I began researching coyote-dog crosses, typically called coydogs or dogotes. We decided that if having a puppy helped Mama’s family, then it would be okay with Mama. Razi’s growing fear of dogs and the need for a good sniffer to find lost animals helped Rocket’s case a lot!
If you go to my Web site, you can see two of the photos I used to help me tell this story. As you look at them, I’m sure you’ll understand why writers say to each other that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Happy Reading!
—Sue
