How to Become a Dog Lover by Eli Easton

Gay Book Reviews is thrilled to have Eli Easton here today talking her very own Howl at the Moon pack of… Bulldogs!

How to Become a Dog Lover

I have a feeling, thanks in part to my writing the “Howl at the Moon” series, I will be remembered as a crazy dog lady. Guilty as charged! I do love dogs. But that wasn’t always the case. Gigi asked me to talk about my own dogs for this blog tour stop to celebrate the release of “How to Wish Upon a Star” (Howl at the Moon #3). So I thought I’d talk about my first true doggie love.

I didn’t have a dog growing up. In fact my early experiences with dogs – being bitten by one dog I tried to pet, and chased around the yard by a pissed off German shepherd, did not predispose me to think of dogs fondly. Over the years, I lost my fear of them, but I wasn’t interested in owning one. They seemed like a lot of work. Then I married my husband, Bob.

Bob is a dog lover. And by that I mean he’s the sort of person who gets a soft, goofy grin whenever he sees anything related to dogs—a cute T-shirt, a mug, a greeting card, some online meme. He has dog pictures as his computer wallpaper. He always had dogs in his life. He always will.

Initially, I was merely tolerant of this. Bob had a basset hound and that dog and I got along fine. But he was definitely Bob’s dog, and I never bonded with him. Then came the day that my step-daughter graduated from high school and went off to college.

Out of nowhere, I really wanted a dog. Maybe it was empty nest panic, but I wanted something to baby and cuddle, and it had to be a dog. My husband thought I was nuts. I’d never been that interested in dogs. I researched and decided I wanted a bulldog. I saw Lola’s puppy picture on a breeder’s website and she knew was The One. Then came the day I picked her up.

Eli with her new bulldog puppy, Lola, in 2007

Lola was definitely my dog, and since I was working from home, I was with her 24/7. I fell head over heels for her. She had quite a personality—alternatively sweet and crazy hyper. We had a bond that’s hard to explain other than to say it was very maternal. I’ve never had my own child, though I was privileged to be a part of my step-daughter’s life from the time she was three years old. So in a sense, Lola was my baby.

Most people who love animals say they had that one special relationship with an animal that made them come to love and respect these non-human lifeforms. They formed a connection that was as deep as any human connection they’d ever had. Lola was that for me. She was my doggie gateway drug!

Lola’s early puppydom. Who could resist that face?

Not all Sunshine and Puppy Treats

I suppose there’s a reason why romances have angst and obstacles. You learn to fully appreciate something when you nearly lose it. At only three months old, Lola had pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. I was devastated. I just prayed she would get better and survive. It was torture to visit her in the hospital where she was in a cage and I couldn’t hold her. Lola, being Lola, was very pissed at me for leaving her there!

Checking Lola into the hospital for pneumonia. Neither of us was happy!

All grown up

Fortunately, Lola did survive her bout with pneumonia. She is now the ripe age of nine years old and she’s still crazy and still my baby. She loves life on our farm with her two ‘sisters,’ me, and my husband. Here’s a photo we took for my birthday a few years ago. She’s a big girl!

Eli with Lola

Livy and Lucy make three

Thanks to Lola, I became as much of a crazy dog person as my husband. Yes, I now get that goofy grin when I see anything related to dogs, and I’m compelling to repost dog stuff on social media. It’s a sickness, I tell you!

We now have three bulldogs—Lola, Lucy, and Livy. I love them all, though Lola will always have a special place in my life.

Lola, Lucy, and Livy

Inspiring Mad Creek

I neither would nor could have ever written the “Howl at the Moon” series if not for Lola. Living with our dogs—and more importantly, loving them—has provided the heart behind the series. I adore writing dog shifter characters. There’s something so pure about a dog. There’s an inherent honestly, straight-forwardness, loyalty, and playfulness that is hard to imagine in a fully human character. Plus, I have a blast working in “dogisms” and dog behavior into my ‘quickened’. Needless to say, our little pack at home provides me with plenty of dog behavior to observe.

I hope you enjoyed meeting my pack. And I hope you’ll love returning to Mad Creek as much as I did while writing “How to Wish Upon a Star”.

Eli Easton