Cheryl S. Smith

It's all my parents' fault. For reasons that will be forever unknown, they refused to let me have a dog (or a horse, but that's another story). I adopted neighborhood dogs as much as I could, but I hungered for my own dog. As soon as I was out of school and had a job, I bought a tiny construction trailer and a dog, a Keeshond I named Sundance. There was barely room for the two of us in the trailer, but I didn't care. I had a dog! Fortunately, Sundance was a princess among dogs and more than made up for my woeful lack of knowledge on the subject of dog care and behavior. I had a series of regular jobs, but also began writing, long distance, for television, starting out at the top with M*A*S*H. Over the years, I added more dogs. Spirit was bought from a pet shop (which I subsequently helped close by enforcing their health guarantee -- Spirit was dying from various diseases and parasites when I took over her care), undoubtedly from a puppy mill. Though I loved her as I loved all my dogs, she was a real challenge both physically and mentally. She had hip dysplasia and allergies, and upon reaching puberty, decided that she hated humans other than her limited family. So my dog education had to grow quickly. By now, my writing had switched to travel and food writing for newspapers and magazines. Serling was a sweetheart, chosen because he was a big black dog in a shelter and didn't stand much chance of being adopted. He was named in honor of Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone, and he was my entry into the world of competition, stepping into the obedience and agility rings and excelling at water work. And those experiences swung my writing to dogs. My first paid articles recounted our misadventures in the obedience ring -- Serling had a fine sense of humor and tortured me regularly until I learned to loosen up and have a good time. The dog writing progressed, I left the world of regular work and became a freelancer, and the dogs continued. I wrote my first books, early entries into the now popular genre of descriptions of where to walk or hike with dogs. I started clicker training. Serling got a part in a movie (a small part -- one day's work). We won talent competitions regularly (this was way before Pet Star, or even Animal Planet). Nestle came along, a lovely gentle boy with his own set of insecurities. I kept writing and won quite a wall-ful of awards. And we now live happily on the Olympic Pensinula in Washington state, along with sheep, chickens, llamas, and a litter of feral cats.