Goodreads asked Kathy Rogo:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Kathy Rogo "Ethel's New Home" is based loosely on a true event. My son TJ was in a pre-school class that had a hamster tank in it. When my older son Kevin and I would go pick him up, Kevin was fascinated by the hamsters and asked me if he could have one. Somehow we ended up bringing home two hamsters that the shop keeper assured us were both female. Do you get where this is going? I actually wrote this story in the summer of 2003, having been inspired by my boys and our little escape artist Ethel who was part of the hamster dynasty as I called them at the time. I have been sitting it on it all these years. Well, we named our two little ladies Lucy and Ethel and then we had a little surprise. Lucy and Ethel turned out to be Fred and Ethel and the Hamster Dynasty began. As the tank became crowded and Ethel started her daring escapes, I knew there just might be a fun children's story in all of this. I started writing.

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