SKIPPING TIME

FOR ALL FANS OF SHANE

So I just received a comment about how cute Shane is by one of my readers (HI @NEON_CUPCAKES)

In return, I wrote her the LONGEST comment ever explaining my attachment to Shane in Skipping Time. And, when I was done I realized I wanted to share the story with my followers too, cause I think it is pretty cool. And I thought it would be a neat thing to add to the end of the book, so I made it evern LONGER and I am adding it here.

Shane is actually based on a dog I had as a kid. I had him when I was twelve. That was the year that (for reasons I won't go into on a public website) both my older sisters (fifteen and sixteen at the time) temporarily moved out. My sisters and I had always been very close and I really missed them. It was tough not havng them around, plus we had just moved (again) and it was the first time I'd ever been on my own in a new town without them.

That was the year that my mom and dad were having a lot of problems with money and I had to wear hand-me-downs to school (which people made fun of.) My dad got a job in another state and only came home on the weekends. Whenever he was home, he and my mom fought.  There was never any happiness in that particular house.

And, that was the year (seventh grade--worst year ever) that my "best friend," Missy Cooper, (yes, that is her real name, I'm still holding resentment. haha) decided, out of the blue, to dump me.

Missy was really popular and had befriended me when I started seventh grade as the new kid. Since she was popular, all her popular friends liked me and, in the beginning, I had a ton of friends and everything was perfect and rainbow-hued and magical.

Until Missy decided she didn't like me--at which point she got all her friends to stop talking to me--and everyone suddenly hated me. I never knew what I did to make Missy, or anyone else, hate me. They just did.

All in all, it was a HORRIBLE year. I spent an entire year completely friendless, without so much as a sibling at home to talk to. But I had my little dog, Shane. And every day when I came home from the torture of school, me and Shane would go out to the woods together for hours and explore. We never met a ridiculously cute (yet seriously troubled) guy. And we never went skipping through time. But we had lots of adventures together. Those hours with Shane were the only time, in that whole miserable year, that I remember being happy. 

We lived out in the country then, so Shane was allowed to just roam free. But, every single time I opened the back door, he would come running from wherever he was. I didn't even have to call his name. He just came, like he somehow always knew I was waiting. 

But then one day I opened the back door and he didn't come running.

I never saw him again. I never knew what happened to him. It took me a long time to get over the loss of that little dog. 

But life went on. And I grew up and got in trouble and fell in love (with the troubled guy who I met in the juvenile shelter. haha. Did I ever mention that Jess and Cacee have quite a bit of me in both of them?) I got married (to the same guy--who is amazingly awesome and I'm still madly in love with) had a bunch of kids and lots of new adventures. 

Over the years I have had many dogs and I have LOVED every one of them.  But there has never been another dog like Shane. He was one of a kind, a one in a million dog that I had a once-in-a-lifetime relationship with. Or so I thought. 

And, here is where the story gets interesting. (In case it hasn't been so far) About a year ago, my sister offered to give me one of her chihuahua puppies because my dog had recently died. 

Of course I said yes!!. Her dog had puppies and they were all super cute and I picked two out of the litter that I really liked. But, in the meantime, my sister (who lives a few states away from me) posted a picture of a different dog. NOT one of her dog's puppies. My sister actually owns a pet store and this particular puppy was one she was selling. She'd found him particularly cute so she posted his pic on Facebook.

And I took one look at THAT puppy and no longer wanted one of her other puppies. I took one look at that puppy and knew it HAD to be him. As Bella would say, "I fell totally, irrevocably in love." haha

Of course, I ended up adopting him. 

His name is Sir Squirrel and he is a 4 pound long-haired tea-cup chihuahua, but he looks different from most chihuahua's. Scrappier and cuter.He is all red (like a little fox) except for the white bib on his chest. He has a little goatee of dark fur under his chin (like Shane did). In fact, although Skipping Time was written somewhere around six years ago and I've owned Sir Squirrelly less than a year, anyone reading the book and then seeing my dog would think I had based Shane on him. Squirrel looks exaclty like the description of Shane in my book. Probably because Squirrel looks quite a bit like the real Shane.  Even all  his mannerisms are VERY similar.

And the moment my sister put him in my arms, Squirrel loved me as much as I loved him. Don't get me wrong, he loves everyone in my family. BUT--not quite the way he loves me. From the second I first held Squirrel, we've had a very special bond.. It was like we recognized one another from the very start. 

I can't describe it anymore than that.

I am a writer, but I don't know how to put into words how special this little dog is, or how happy he has made me, or how strong the bond I have with him is. 

And I know it sounds super crazy, but I think that Sir Squirrel is maybe Shane reincarnated. He FEELS like Shane. That's the best way I can think of to say it.. It makes me happy to think so anyway.

So now it's like I have Shane  back in my life again--which is awesome. :)

And that is my story. I hope you guys enjoyed it. 

                                                                                        ***

PS Haha...I just realized that my little Squirrelly-Q (yes, he has a million names) looks like he's stoned in that picture. He's not. 

AND--I FORGOT TO ASK THE FIRST TIME--if any of you guys have awesome dogs that you want to tell me about, I'd love to hear your stories!! Who out there has the best dog ever? Leave it in the comments. :)