Legalese: This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons [or dogs, cats, goats, or camels], now living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

Plainspeak: I want to make it very, very, (did I mention very?) clear that none of the characters are based, even loosely, on any real person I know.

In other words, Looser Island does not exist.

Fans of The Muppet Christmas Carol may remember how Gonzo (aka Charles Dickens) begins: “The Marleys were dead to begin with. This one thing you must remember, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous.”

Here’s my version: What the Dogs Know is a work of fiction. That one thing you must remember, or nothing that follows will be fun.

The stories are set in the San Juan Islands (each of which has been renamed for the story). There are so many marvelous islands in the archipelago, and limiting myself to just one would have been impossible. 

There have been moments that imprinted themselves on my heart, and they wound up in these stories.

For instance, several years ago, while visiting Lopez, I drove by a couple who were, as far as I could tell, walking their goat.

On a leash.

I know nothing about that couple (or their goat), but a story spun itself out of that single encounter. (You’ll find the story of Liam and Geena, “the new hippie couple,” their daughter Daisy, and their goat Gafr, in the pages that follow.)

And my spirits have been lifted by glimpses of a delivery person who sings joyously while driving around on the islands, who occasionally tosses a dog biscuit out the window at passing dogs. The driver’s name isn’t “Missy” (as far as I know), there is no Hairy Horde (as far as I know), and there was no miserable childhood (as far as I know). I don’t even know if the driver likes Third Eye Blind . . .

A beautiful inn just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the ferry landing on Orcas captured my fancy, and I had already worked its (fictional) owners into a chapter when I discovered another beautiful inn on Lopez run by a family with lots of children and livestock. Having barely survived raising two children and holding down one job, I was in awe, and decided to weave those themes into the chapter. But neither the Orcas inn owners nor the Lopez inn owners “are” the Breckenridges I invented for these pages.

Then there was the visit to San Juan Island, when I drove past a field with, incongruously, a camel.

I now know her name was Mona, may she rest in peace. Thus was “Norm” born, the cheerfully combative camel who ruined an Easter Parade. (If I ever finish the prequel, you’ll get to meet Norm.)

But Norm bears no resemblance to Mona, other than belonging to the same species—and the series does not take place on San Juan Island. Because . . .

. . . What the Dogs Know is fiction.

For some fascinating background on legal disclaimers, check out the post Disclaimers: More Interesting Than You Think

#dogstories #ilovedogs #looserislanddogs #thedogsoflooserisland