Pets and Assorted Animals in Stories. Love ‘um or Not? By Connie Vines

When I am a guest speaker at an elementary or middle school, public library, or even during a workshop.  Someone always asks about the pets or other animals in my stories. What function do they perform in the story? Do they need to have a function? Can they be a character?  

Since I am an animal lover and owner of a multitude of pets (exotic, barnyard, and typical suburban) at various times during my life, it only goes to reason that I will have them peppering my short stories, novellas, and novels.  My Rodeo Romance Series (understandably) incorporates a cast of horses, sheep, cattle, dogs, cats, etc.  Some of these animals only have Cameo roles, while others are characters in their own right.  My Fun & Sassy Fantasy Series also features a pet as a main character in each story line.  Gertie, a pet Teddy-Bear Hamster, is Zombie Meredith’s BF in “Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow”.  “Brede” Rodeo Romance, Book 2 features a horse and cattle dog.  “Lynx” Rodeo Romance, Book 1, features the hero’s horse named Texas. The next book in my series, “Rand” Rodeo Romance, Book 3 features a poodle who belongs to the heroine.  Rand’s interaction with this very unrodeo-like dog is priceless!

For realistic purposes I select animals/breeds that I either have owned, or have working personal knowledge (chickens, turkeys, quail, pheasant, pigs, sheep— bred for. . .well, dinner during my rural days).  My dogs: Greyhound (my favorite & a rescue) Poodle (AKC champion pedigree), and– my husband’s dog, a Chi-wienie (Chihuahua Dachshund mix). I also like to add my horses (Quarter horse, Arabian, and a Paint –a retired rodeo barrel racer) into the mix.  Due to my allergies to cats, my info in developing feline character comes mostly via friends and the Animal Channel.  Now the unconventional pet experiences, were discovered firsthand (I did raise two sons and I have three younger brothers).  Pet mice, geckos, iguanas, horned toads & lizards, hamsters, parakeets, an Amazon parrot, a runaway (flyaway?) cockatiel, and canary have a way of finding a place in my life and my stories. 

Future adventure with pets?  Probably. 

I simply adore baby pygmy goats.  Mind you, I reside in the suburbs of Southern California.  Frequently, my husband reminds me, “You cannot raise a goat in our backyard, there are zoning laws.” 

Of course, I know there are zoning laws.  I also know goats are herd animals.  “We will need to have two goats.” 

“We?” He grunts and goes back to his ‘man-cave’.

If you look at a YouTube video and read the mentioned online article titled: Pigmy Goats. The opening hook states: You should reconsider your choice in pets if you want an animal to stay indoors with you.

 I did find one particular fact of interest—and an unexpected sidebar of living in an all-male household: ‘Goats are messy eaters too, pulling feed out of buckets and leaving it on the floor.  Once it’s trampled, they really don’t want to touch it.’  Reminded me of the bygone days with teenage sons and friends.

While my characters do not always have pet, my characters have often had a pet during childhood, interact with an animal, or (YA stories) would like a pet. 

Why, do I believe animals are important to a story line?

It is a way to show character, good and bad.

How people treat animals will give a reader insight into my main character, or my villain.  I believe treatment of an animal hints at how he/she will treat a vulnerable person (child/spouse).  If the hero seems uncaring and selfish to outsiders, give the heroine a view into an unguarded moment he shares with an injured puppy, or his care of his horse.  His truck may be battered and dirty, but his horse is well groomed, fed, and sheltered each night.

However, my animals need to have a purpose.  Sometimes it may only be comic relief, or a confidant in a YA novel, but unless it is a Cameo role (or red herring), my animals have a personality and a place in the storyline.

Who doesn’t remember, “Call of the Wild”, “Old Yeller”, “Misty of Chincoteague”?

I believe pets, can enrich a story—my novels, as are (in my opinion) most genre novels, a story about life and the human need for love and companionship.

Not every novel calls for an animal to part of the story. 
Not every person wishes to be responsible for a pet.

I did a bit of research and discovered these stats (the info about fish surprised me).

*Stats: 2014, 83.2 million dogs live in U.S. households, 95.5 million freshwater fish live in U.S. household, and 85.8 million cats live in U.S. households.
* Statista.com

So, what do you think?  How do you feel?

Do you have fond memories of a pet? Unfortunate events? (I have a scar on my knee from a rabbit bite.)

Happy Reading,

Connie 

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Tayayia--Whisper upon the Water

Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow

Are we becoming a race of trans-humans and cyborgs? by Vijaya Schartz

Find Vijaya's books on her BWL page HERE

The future is here. Many of us already have surgical implants, heart valves, pace-makers, artificial knees, bionic legs, hands and arms controlled by the mind. Some have artificial lenses in their eyes, cochlear implants to allow the deaf to hear. 

Science can now regrow in a lab new body parts or make them from biological material with 3D printers.

Babies can be born with the DNA of three parents. Animals have been cloned. Human cloning is illegal, but how long will it take for some governments to secretly grow their own human clones?

In China, tests have proven successful in creating improved babies by replacing DNA strands with stronger ones, or different ones. Soon, parents will be able to have designer babies, choosing the hair and eye color, the physical strength, the intelligence, the immunity to known diseases. 

Nanotechnology (tiny microscopic machines introduced in the blood stream) will allow us to repair or rectify any malfunction in the human body, cure any disease. Some day humans will be quasi-immortals... and part robots. Linking the brain to computers will increase the capacity of the human brain.

The next step will be to produce super-intelligent human beings, super-soldiers, special individuals adapted to live in  specific environments, like space, or on different planets.

These changes are happening quickly and soon, we'll have to deal with the problems of the future. We'll need new laws, new guidelines, to accommodate the progress of science. That's what makes science fiction fascinating.

And if you like reading futuristic fiction, you may want to try my latest series, Azura Chronicles, set on a tropical planet inhabited by angelic beings. amazon  -  B&N  -  Smashwords  -  Kobo

  

There is a planet out in the universe, emitting a strange turquoise glow. A long time ago Azura refused to join the Trade Alliance. The Alliance sent their military fleet to destroy the Azurans, but their powerful supernatural abilities spread fear even among the fiercest Devil Dogs. Since then, records have been erased. Rumors and legends all but died. Azura is strictly forbidden, and the daring few who ventured beyond the warning space beacons were never seen again...

Vijaya Schartz, author
 Strong heroines, brave heroes, romance with a kick
 http://www.vijayaschartz.com
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How much detail is enough? Tricia McGill.

Check out my Books We Love Author page for details on all my books

When I am writing a historical or time-travel it always causes a bit of a holdup while I work out just how much of the day to day details to put it. Of course, it’s imperative to show just what life was really like in the early days of say, settlement in Australia, and I always feel that the biggest load was put on the females. Imagine life in the bush without all the personal aids us females need. Then there is cleanliness to worry about. It’s all very well letting our characters take a dip in the nearest river or creek, but just supposing it is freezing cold, or you have nothing to dry yourself on but a piece of rag, or worse yet, there are crocodiles, snakes or worse to worry about. Even when they reach a town there will not be any of the amenities we take for granted. No nice warm baths, showers or inside toilets. Melbourne did not have a sewage system installed until around the late 1890s.

By 1838, Melbourne was composed of 3 churches, 13 hotels, 28 places of business, 64 homes, making a total of 108 structures. On August 12th 1842 Melbourne became a ‘Town’ by order of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales. Is it any wonder that in 1850 the river became so polluted a typhoid fever outbreak killed many people.

After gold was discovered in the Melbourne surrounds, it became one of the richest cities in the world. The population in the 1880s was around half a million, yet they gained the reputation of being called Smellbourne, due to the fact that all waste was still being emptied into open drains along the streets. These drain channels then flowed into the Yarra River, and therefore ended up in the sea. That included all kitchen and laundry wastewater, the contents of chamber pots, not to mention the run off from farms and subsequent industries. 

I have to imagine myself in the period I am writing about. Currently my characters are in the early 1840s of Australia. They have travelled the 600 miles overland from Sydney to Melbourne (Port Phillip as it was first called) on what could only roughly be termed a road. At that time it took around a month, so I guess wasn’t much different to the travellers of America who headed west on the wagon trains. I loved those old Western movies in my youth but never once considered the inconveniences they had to endure.

In our travelling days, we would be away from home for at least four months a year and after trying camping out in a tent once I insisted I would never go anywhere again unless it was with a camper trailer or motor home. All that we needed was stashed away in the van and I would always insist on staying at a camp park where we could connect up to water and power. Sleeping rough was not for me, thank you.

So that brings me back to how much detail to insert in my stories, never forgetting that I am basically a romance writer and not a historian who must stick rigidly to fact. I am not the outdoorsy type but did a lot of horse riding in my younger days, yet could not imagine being in the saddle for 600 miles over a month. The road in 1840 was not so bad for a while, once they left Sydney, and there were even a few bridges across some rivers.  There were a few inns to be found in the sparse newly settled towns along the way, but after the first 178 miles the hostelries became scarcer and then the travellers had to sleep rough. There was always the danger of attack by bushrangers, whose gangs often consisted of escaped or ex-convicts.

When researching for my stories it never ceases to amaze me how far we have come in a short space of time. I often feel that some things have not changed for the better—all the traffic clogging our highways and roads for one thing could be improved on. In the suburb where I live there is so much building going on—which is great—but the roads are not keeping pace with the traffic, causing congestion—one thing the early travellers did not need to worry about. Some folk have to spend a few hours each day in their cars, probably an hour or more waiting for the traffic to move. There is a supermarket on almost every corner, making it hard to envision going weeks on the road without a handy store to stock up. And that brings me back to the niceties of life—and the lack of them in the old days. Is it any wonder the settlers were made of tough stuff—especially those women who followed their menfolk over treacherous tracks to build a life for themselves and their children. I salute them.

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