Laura Hayden:  We think Annabella may be from Canada.  She doesn't have a green card or any other papers, but we do know she's 7/8 Border Collie and 1/8 Sheltie.  She herds small reluctant animals, furniture, walls, and people--anything she can find--and hates doorbells, phones and people sneezing.  Some people call her neurotic.  I simply call her "Belly" for short.

Shirl Henke has a pair of utterly adorable tom kittens, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.

Elle James:  Sweetpea the white Malti-poo and Chewbaca (Chewy for short) the Yorkshire terrier are a little over a year old. Shortly after I brought them home, Sweetpea almost died several times. Between intestinal worms and pneumonia it was touch-and-go for a couple weeks. She made up for it! Now she rules the roost and tells Chewy who's boss. Short on stature and big on attitude, that's my girl. Chewy is the ultimate lapdog. He'll follow you everywhere and likes it best when he can curl up in your lap. I've learned to reach over him to my keyboard although it's not much of a reach. They each weigh around six pounds. With almost all my children grown and gone, they're helping me through the empty-nest syndrome.

Linda O. Johnston finds that Lexie, her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, inspires her writing.  Maybe it’s because Kendra Ballantyne, the protagonist of her Pet-Sitter Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime, is inspired by HER dog Lexie, coincidentally also a Cavalier! Or maybe it’s because Linda’s Lexie insists on sitting on her lap while she writes...and her other Cavalier, Sparquie, sits on her lap while she edits.

Dana Marton:  These are my two blue parakeets, Lady and Tom. They are both very cheerful and get along fabulously well. They love looking out the window (probably planning the big breakout).  :-) 

Since I last posted the picture of our parakeets, Lady  passed away. Our family was also blessed with a new addition, however. Her name is Peanut and she's a beagle puppy. We just absolutely adore her. She's the cutest little thing. Very well behaved, too. Only ate one book so far, and that after I finished reading it.

Maureen McKade's pets vie for the opportunity to curl up in the snuggler chair.  Autumn, her five-month-old French Brittany Spaniel, likes to curl up with her 19-year-old cat Tasha, who isn't real thrilled about the idea, but puts up with the precocious pup. Paige, her 6-year-old French Brittany Spaniel, is a bird hunting dog and usually claims the chair for herself or shares with her daddy. But, of course, we would never spoil our bird dog. ;-)

Lauren Royal's Birman cat, Mocha, likes to sit like a person. In fact, he thinks he IS a person. Or maybe a god...

Deborah Smith currently has eight cats--not deliberately, it's just that her house in the woods is a magnet for strays and abandoned pets.  Two of her oldest cats, Emmy and Oscar, died a few years ago.  Here's a painting of Emmy.  Deb made it from an old photograph she took one spring day, years ago, when Emmy stretched out, sphinx-like, on a porch shelf in the sunshine.  

Maggie is a seven-month-old apricot standard poodle belonging to Deb Stover.  Deb's daughter, Princess Bonnie, thinks Maggie looks like "Lion King." At night when it's time to tuck Bonnie, who has Down Syndrome, in bed, Maggie will grab a corner of the blanket with her teeth and tug it up over her along with Mom (who uses her hands, not her teeth). :) Princess Bonnie says, "Good-night, Lion King."

Vicki Lewis Thompson:  I first spotted Eve wearing a leash as she led a Humane Society volunteer through the aisles at PetSmart.  That little cat had attitude to spare and I fell in love.  One year later, I can't imagine life without her.  I'm sure she helps me write better books.

Rebecca York.  Here are my three cats, Harriet ("Harry"), Ozzie, and Aby ("the Beevel"), watching their favorite show, "Video Catnip."  In the other picture, Ozzie (Harry's mother) is sitting on our kitchen island, hamming it up for a TV crew.  Ozzie and Harry were both rescued, and I'm sure they're part Maine Coon.  The woman who fostered them named Ozzie Princess Ozma.  I wanted a name to go with that, but I couldn't find a good one from L. Frank Baum.  So I went with Ozzie and, of course, named her daughter Harriet.  Harriet is the classic scaredy cat who runs away from people.  Ozzie is a real people cat who sits in on my writers' group meetings. 

Our third cat--the Beevel--is a purebred Abyssinian, the daughter of two grand champions.  She's also an escape cat who will slip out the door when you're not looking and prance around the front yard like a thoroughbred racehorse.