The Fictional Casey’s Real-Life Counterpart

Still Counting opens with Casey, a cancer-stricken Labrador retriever, being put to sleep. As I shopped the manuscript around, I heard a consistent comment about the opening: “very powerful but perhaps too sad for many readers.” My Wild Rose editor felt the same way and asked me to tone it down. Which I did.

I fully understand this emotional reaction because I wrote most of the scene through teary eyes. Two years ago on December 27, 2013, Ruby, my sweet and gentle 12-year-old Lab succumbed to...