Fido and Friend in Five: Suzanne Selfors and Skylos!

Suzanne & Skylos

I was working at the library one day, and we got in this middle grade book with the cutest cover and an even cuter title: Smells Like Dog. Dog on the cover and the word dog in the title, you betcha I grabbed that book and took it home to read. What a hoot! Laugh-out-loud funny, a bit of a mystery with such a great narrative voice. I was in heaven. So imagine my delight at the very end where their was a photo of the author holding her dog--and the dog was a gorgeous Sheltie! I emailed Suzanne "toot sweet" and asked her if she and her Sheltie would like to be on my blog. I was so, so happy when she said yes! I love all the dogs who've been on Fido and Friend, but it's really special to me to have a Sheltie since I'm all about Shelties.

One of the other really cool things about Suzanne is she writes for all ages. Her middle-grade books, Smells Like Dog and it's sequel Smells Like Treasure, To Catch a Mermaid, and Fortune's Magic Farm have been called "darkly comic." She also has written a number of teen novels including Mad Love and Saving Juliet, all of which are award winning.

Suzanne's a busy lady, but she is, most importantly, Skylos's girl.

Skylos hard at work

1. How did you and Skylos find each other?  Skylos is the first dog I purchased from a breeder. All my other dogs came to me as strays. He is my first Sheltie. My husband read all these articles about choosing a puppy from a litter--different games to play with the puppy to make sure the puppy wouldn't be too timid or aggressive. Skylos is absolutely perfect, I must say. He's friendly and gets along with other dogs. Because he's a herding dog, he's very loyal and stays by my side. The only bad thing he ever did was to eat our kitchen floor when he was a puppy. His name means "dog" in Greek. My son named him.

2. What make's Skylos's tail wag?  Saying "Wanna go for a walk?" or "Wanna go see Casey?" She's his girlfriend.

Suzanne's muse!

3. What's your all-time favorite dog story?  I love the picture book series, McDuff, by Rosemary Wells about the little Westie (West Highland Terrier) and his adventures. I used to read those books to my kids when they were little. I adore the illustrations too. I like happy dog stories. I also love the picture book, Dogzilla, by Dave Pinkey. Very funny!

4. If Skylos could change one thing about you, what would it be?  He'd make me love his scent. Oh yeah, two weeks without  a bath and he smells like a bag of rancid cornchips. It's all that fur--layer upon layer of it. Soe he gets lots of baths, which he hates.



5. In five words, tell us what Skylos means to you:  My everpresent, understanding, calming muse.

As I always say, you haven't been loved until you've been loved by a Sheltie...Thanks so much, Suzanne and Skylos, for letting me shine the Fido and Friend spotlight on you! To find out more about Suzanne's books, visit her website http://www.suzanneselfors.com/