When Maeve’s terrier, Nidge, bounds onto the page in Purls and Peril, he brings with him more than muddy paws and comic relief. He’s stitched together from two real dogs who shaped my life: Mac, my Westie with an uncanny “mud radar” and a bottomless appetite, and Willow, my quirky rescue (part Shar-Pei, according to a very dubious DNA test) who avoids puddles like the plague but will happily sprawl in a stream on a warm day. Together, they became the inspiration for Nidge — and even for my publishing imprint, MacWillow Press.