I have been a portrait artist for the past 20 years.  I have always drawn people but as time went on I found another influence that led me in a different direction. I had been volunteering for local animal rescues for about 5 years and I found that while I was fostering dogs that each one had a story to tell.  They all had wonderful, funny and heart inspiring personalities and traits that inspired me to tell just a little bit about them in a childrens book.  I didn't want to tell about their past suffering because we all know about that.  I wanted to tell about something funny or a thought process that made them react in a certain way.  I tell the stories in first person from the dogs perspective so it gives a fun look into the dogs personality.  I started following the dogs around with a camera and capturing just the pose I wanted and then I would work with the photos and my story and draw pictures to go with each tale.  It became so much fun creating the books that I have now completed 7 books and am working on 2 more.  I am now drawing pet portraits from customers photos instead of human portraits.  I am now able to donate part of the preceeds from the sale of my books and portraits back to animal rescues to help with the wonderful work all the volunteers do.