Bio
I was raised in the 1950s on an Oklahoma farm in Osage County with one sister and two brothers. Mama left the home when I was seven. Dad raised the four of us while working a fulltime job on the Santa Fe Railroad and farming 160 acres.
Lost in the shuffle of life, I surrounded myself with dogs, cats, chickens, cows, horses and any other animal I could gather in. I gave the members of my new family constant attention. I named them, dressed them up and had daily conversations with them. In return, they gave me a continual source of love and security.
The first eight years of my education, I attended a one-room schoolhouse with a two-hole outhouse. After high school, I decided to pursue a career in veterinary medicine at Oklahoma State University in order to remain close to my animals. It became apparent, however, at the end of one semester, my brain couldn’t comprehend chemistry, which was a prerequisite for veterinary medicine. While floundering in disappointment over the realization that I was academically challenged, I won $25.00 in a campus poetry contest.
My interest quickly shifted from college to writing. I quit school after one year, went to work and began to write. I sold my first article four years later.
I became a mother in 1971. At four years of age my son developed chronic asthma and three years later, we moved from Oklahoma to Colorado on the advice of his doctor. His health gradually improved and we remained in Colorado.
Today, I live on an isolated acre in northwest Colorado with a jackass, Jesse James and a stray dog named Keeper. My son, now forty, is a healthy personal trainer. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons. My grandsons, Cameron and Nolan, bless me with their joyous presence every summer on Blue Mountain, where we walk the hills, ride horses and play games. They refer to me as their “Blue Mountain Grandma.”
This summer I lost my cat, Jinx, of ten years and this fall, my beloved Border collie, Bantam. In the spring, I will rescue another cat and adopt another Border collie puppy from a local animal shelter, because animals remain one of my closest links to the divine.
