Alexandra (or "Ally") Arena is an award-winning children's book author from Canada. As a long time lover of writing and wiener dogs, Ally decided to combine her two favourite things in the world into a passion project that would ultimately become her first children's book, 'Olive the Worrying Wiener', the bronze medal recipient in the Picture Books category in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Ally brought Olive home in 2014 after she had dreamt of having her own dachshund for several years. This marked the beginning of a very special bond. Olive, like her new mom, seemed burdened by a tendency to worry (and she had the furrowed brow and adorable, shifty, wide eyes to prove it). Naturally, Ally felt inspired to write about the funny, charming - and most importantly, relatable - little antics of this amazing sausage-shaped soulmate she was so lucky to have in her life. Ally works remotely in Ontario, Canada, as a marketing coordinator, and now finds herself the proud mom of two. Wiener dogs, that is. While Olive wasn't thrilled at the idea of her mom bringing a new addition home, she warmed up to Pickle in no time (okay, it took a long time) and now they are an inseparable sausage sister duo. Rest assured, you can expect more wonderful wiener stories to come (topped off with a sprinkling of heart-warming and valuable lessons of course). You can tune in to Olive and Pickle's journey together at their Instagram page run by Ally, @the_needy_weenies!
