Kolbe (pronounced "Colby") was my first dog, a beautiful bitch with attitude who was a prissy, pampered show dog. Everyone who met her was taken by both her beauty and the force of her personality. She had charisma. Over the years she developed a fan base, regularly received fan mail, and I had many requests from people for her photograph. She gave birth to four puppies, and those puppies changed the lives of the families who adopted them in magnificent ways.
Yes, Kolbe changed the world.
Kolbe was my heart dog, and when she left, the grief threatened to drown me. So, I did what most writers do when trying to process their emotions...I wrote about her. Since I'm a novelist, I created a character in my comic RED HOT series of novels that I based on her. I named the character Talisman and introduced her in RED HOT PROPERTY. It wasn't a huge role, but it was memorable, and it created a whole new fan base for Kolbe/aka/Talisman. Talisman now receives piles of fan mail and many requests for her pawtograph, but little do the fans know that it really is all for Kolbe, for her spirit is the soul of Talisman.
I never expected Talisman to become so popular. To meet reader demand, I have greatly expanded her role in the upcoming novel RED HOT LIBERTY. And I am working on a novella entirely from her perspective called SHOW DOG SINGS THE BLUES. The beauty of all this is that Kolbe is now immortal, and she continues to change the world.
"Kolbe" 4/18/91-12/27/02
"To everything there is a season. He has made everything beautiful in its time, and He has put eternity in their hearts." - Ecclesiastes
You changed my world, Kolbe. I'll always love you. xox
