There Will Always Be Pets In My Mysteries: Guest Post by Lorie Lewis Ham

I am not sure how old I was when I got my first dog, but I know I wasn’t more than five and I wasn’t in school yet. His name was Max, and he was a mutt. But technically, he wasn’t my first pet. My parents tell me I ran around the yard with a rooster under my arm as soon as I could walk. I don’t remember him, but I do remember Max and all the many dogs who followed after that. 

 

Pets have always been a very important part of my life and held a special place in my heart. They were my playmates and my best friends. They gave me comfort when nothing else could. I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have a dog. 

 

After I had children, cats came into my life. Our first cat was a beautiful Siamese named Shelby. I had always been horribly allergic to cats, but when Shelby literally leaped into my arms after being abandoned by the Kings River, I couldn’t turn her away. After several months of living on daily allergy and asthma medication, and trying every trick I could find to decrease her dander, things suddenly got better. Now my cat allergies are minimal and almost non-existent with my own cats. Shelby opened the door of my life and my heart to cats. I’ve never been without a cat or two, or five (that’s what I have now, all rescues), since that moment. 

 

When my oldest was in fourth grade I was introduced to pet rats—very much against my will. They had rats in their classroom and begged to have one of their own. I conceded, and have never been without a pet rat since then. A white rat with red eyes named Hermione showed me how wonderful they could be as pets. I even did pocket pet rescue for a bit (hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, and rabbits). 

 

So as important as real pets have been to my life, of course they were going to be present in my books. I think pets say a lot about who we are as a person. A person who has no love for animals is a person I can’t help being suspicious of. What kind of pets we have often says a lot about us as well, as does how we treat them. I also believe that pets can make us better people. They show us a love that is unconditional—they don’t care who we are, or what we do, or what we accomplish in life—they just love us. 

 

My first series had a black cat named Watson and a Cocker Spaniel named Sherlock—named after and based on pets of my own. With my new series, The Tower District Mysteries, the pets have another purpose as well. I wanted to highlight animals who face stigma in the real world and show how amazing they are—pet rats, black cats, and Pit Bulls. I also wanted them all to be rescues. Roxi Carlucci’s (my main character) pets are a pet dumbo rat named Merlin, a black cat named Dan, and a Pit Bull named Watson. 

 

Animal rescue also plays a role in the new series—not only with the pets that Roxi has by the second book, but also the fact that she used to run a pocket pet rescue and that one of the reoccurring characters runs a dog rescue. 

 

Another animal in my new series is a blond mini Dachshund named Bogie. He belongs to another of the reoccurring characters in the series, bookstore owner and Booktuber Clark Halliwell—who is also a potential love interest for Roxi. Bogie is Clark’s emotional support animal and he credits him with literally saving his life. Clark has been diagnosed with Bipolar 2. Bogie is based on my beloved mini Dachshund Lestat, who got me through a dark time in my life. I recently lost my sweet Lestat after nearly fifteen years. I am so glad Bogie can continue on as a tribute to the wonderful pet, no best friend, that he was. 

I hope you will check out my Tower District Mysteries not only for the mysteries themselves, but to get the chance to let these wonderful pets into your lives and hearts. Wherever my mystery writing takes me in the future you can be sure that there will always be pets! 

 

Book 1, One of Us, came out in 2021, and Book 2, One of You, was just released this summer. 

 

Here is just a bit about One of You: 

Secrets, gossip, theatre, mystery writers, and murder! A Halloween Mysteryfest. Or is it a murderfest? One author murdered, others attacked. Is the killer writing their own murder mystery in blood? It’s a mystery set in the historic Tower District—Fresno's dining, arts, and entertainment hub. 

 

You can find links to purchase One of You here on the Universal Buy Link https://books2read.com/u/m0eWAy

 

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Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing most of her life. She has published numerous articles, short stories, and poems, has written for a local newspaper, and published 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her new book One of You, Book 2 in The Tower District Mystery series. You can learn more about Lorie on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor.