The best writing buddy? My dog!
I was never a dog person…or a cat person, or any type of pet person at all. I never wavered when my children begged and pleaded for a dog. The answer was always a firm ‘no’. So, I blame my husband for what happened next.
Eldest child was four years old and had decided that Daddy might be an easier bet when it came to requesting a dog of her own. “When you’re seven,” he told her, reasoning that she’d have forgotten all about it by then. Reader, she did not.
So that was how we ended up with Scout. A promise is a promise, after all.
When I imagined dog ownership, I really only focused on the negatives. The mess, the toilet training, the walks, the poop-scooping. I also wondered how I would ever get any writing done. I’d been suffering from a severe case of writers’ block for quite some time – sitting down to write seemed a daunting and near-impossible goal when there were so many other to-dos on the list requiring immediate attention (work, kids…life). Throwing another dependant into the mix was hardly going to help matters, was it?
And yes, things were tough for the first few months. Scout – a curly red cockapoo – was definitely cute, but she was also intent on chewing up our whole house and destroying our carpets with her daily ‘presents’. Then there were the emergency vet visits when she devoured a conker, some playdoh, a packet of Ibuprofen. Savoury foods were more her thing, though. From crisps (no Pringle, no Wotsit, no Quaver was safe) to cheese (never mind Dairylea Triangles, this dog would do anything for a Mini Babybel).
And, my goodness, was she needy! In time, I got used to my fuzzy, yappy shadow following me into the shower and swatting me with her paw every time I dared to fold laundry instead of administering belly rubs. And yet, something in our house had shifted. The energy was lighter, the laughs louder, the weekend walks livened up by our four-pawed addition. And – incredibly – my writing drought seemed to be coming to an end, too.
I credit the now-essential daily walks for this, at least in part. Getting outside seems to quiet my mind and reawaken my creativity like nothing else. Without those 9am park ambles, I’d have spent the time staring at a blank page and cursing my lack of inspiration, while sitting at my desk.
The desk, as it turns out, was another creativity block. With my velcro dog constantly demanding closeness, my work moved from the study, to the sofa, and finally to the bed. And I discovered that writing is a whole lot less daunting with a pile of pillows, a cup of tea and a warm dog curled up on my lap.
Finally, Scout provided me with SO MUCH writing material. Her unbridled happiness and cuteness (and downright weirdness) became the prompt for a flurry of brand new stories. One of which became Finding Floss, my debut picture book. And although Scout can’t change colour like the hero of that story, she inspired so much of the action on the pages – the cat-taunting, the bed-burrowing, the sausage-snaffling and all the times she’s sneaked in somewhere uninvited.
So, yes, these days I am proud to call myself A Dog Person. Dog-obsessive, even. And I consider Scout my collaborator on all of my stories. She’s even on the payroll – one Babybel per finished story seems fair, don’t you think?
- Finding Floss: The Colour-changing Cockapoo! By Cara Matheson, illustrated by Mirna Imamovic, is published by Owlet Press, £7.99 paperback, out now.
- Find Cara on Instagram @cara_matheson_writer and Twitter @cara_writer
- www.owletpress.com
