As a child I had both a fear and fascination of all animals and dreamt of writing about them and even getting close to some of them. When my son was around the age of 7, his father who grew up on a farm and was always surrounded by animals mentioned of how wonderful it would be for our son to grow up with a family pet dog, I had to face my fear and did agree to get a family pet dog for him. In doing this, it truly opened up my heart to animals and my fear of being around many animals. The wonderful end result was bringing this childhood dream to fruition.