I spent my childhood on cattle ranches, first in Texas and then Colorado. We always had dogs, cats, and horses around, and I grew up loving them all. After marrying my veterinarian husband, things were no different. But I soon realized that my husband was most happy if he had a pack of dogs around, reminiscent of Dr. Siegfried Farnon in James Harriotโs All Creatures Great and Small.
Charlie and I have been married almost forty-five years, and many dogs have given us joy and companionship during those years. But for the purpose of brevity, Iโll focus on our familyโs dogs during the past decade.
When my second Timber Creek K-9 Mystery published in 2016, Charlie and I decided to take a promotional photo featuring our current pack. It took countless triesโthank goodness for digital camerasโbut we ended up with one that we thought was pretty terrific. Here I am reading Stalking Ground to Yellow Lab Lily, border collie Tess, and German shorthaired pointer Hannah. What Iโm really mumbling is, โLook at me, look at me. Do you want a treat? Look at meโฆโ
The next year, we added baby Bertie to the pack. She fit in beautifully, and we tried again when book four, Burning Ridge, publishedโthis time without trying to pose with a book. These four working dogs became fast friends and loved running out in the field next to the house, the bird dogs looking for pheasants, and the border collie looking for cows.
Alas, the only dog still with us is Bertie. The other three have passed from old age, and we still miss them. Hannah was still living when we moved from Colorado to the Olympic peninsula in 2022, and she and Bertie were inseparable. They explored our new property, played, and slept together. We were amazed that they often mirrored each otherโs positions while sleeping. We called them โBookends.โ
After Hannah passed in 2025, Bertie became an only child. She has adapted, as have we, and my husband who is now retired seems satisfied with having only one dog. He is a beekeeper, so he traded taking care of cattle for taking care of bees. Our adult daughters have inherited our love for dogs, and they each have one too. The last three photos are of the current Mizushima dogs.
Bertie still loves roaming the property, but now sheโs hunting squirrels instead of birds. She can spend hours at the base of a towering Douglas fir or Western red cedar, gazing upward at a squirrel that is chittering at her. Then itโs time to lie down in the grass and rest.
Our younger daughter and her husband adopted Bruno, a one-eyed Pit Bull terrier who had been injured by a car when he was roaming the streets. Despite losing his eye and breaking his shoulder, the shelter recognized his sweet nature and saved him. He was fostered until he healed and then put up for adoption. Heโs been a part of our family now for eleven years, and heโs been a wonderful companion. His nicknames are Brunhilda, the Brunosaurus, and the Brunmeister.
Our older daughter adopted Sunny from a shelter in Arizona that was affiliated with helping place dogs from a shelter in Mexico. This little guy is happy most of the time and usually wears that grin. We call him Sunny Sunshine for obvious reasons. Heโs a little ray of joy.
Margaret Mizushima writes the internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She served as a past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of a Colorado Authors League Award, a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, a CIBA CLUE Award, and two Willa Literary Awards by Women Writing the West. Her books have been finalists for a SPUR Award by Western Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, and the Colorado Book Award. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest. Find her on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima, Xย @margmizu, Instagram @margmizu, and her websiteย www.margaretmizushima.com.
