Unleashing Imagination and Compassion: How Children's Books Ignite a Love for Pets and Promote Adoption

Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to the story of my pet podcast.

I am Julie Marty Pearson, your host, proud fur mom, pet lover and all around animal advocate. I'm so happy to have you here to listen to the incredible pet stories that I have collected from around the world. I hope you enjoy this episode and I can't wait to share this pet story with you. Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to a new episode of the story of my pet podcast. I'm your host, julie Marty Pearson, as always, and I'm very excited to welcome two new guests to the podcast. I have Teresa Adamo and Jennifer Williams Cordova with me. Thank you, guys, both for being here. Thank you, thank you for having us.

So I'm excited because these are local people to where I live in Biggersfield, california. They're people that I've actually been aware of for a few years because they write amazing children's books about pets and I heard about them through my family. My nephew is a big fan. He actually got to meet them when they came to his school several years ago to present, so I've known about them. I've now met them and I'm very excited to share your guys' story with my audience so they can learn about you as well. Before we get into all of that, what I always like to start with is so have pets always been a part of your life? Yes, absolutely.

I have always had pets. My parents always had a dog or a cat though. Yeah, it's always been a part of my life too.

And has there been a pet in your life that you would call whether it's a cat or a dog or even something else, that was like your soul pet, that changed your life greatly in some way? For?

me for sure it was Indy. I figure that, but what about you, jennifer?

Mine would be my current dog, ben, who was the first pet I got as an adult, instead of the family pet growing up.

Yeah, I understand that my first pet as an adult. They just change their lives when you get to be the official fur mom for them. I think that's our two.

Yeah.

I guess we do a little. Tell all the listeners about each of yourselves. You have a varied background and rather than me reading off a boring bio, I'd rather get to see and hear from you guys a little bit about your background and how you guys came together to start working on these projects.

So I was born and raised in Bakersfield. I went away to school, came back and I was an art and design major and I started working here for a local graphic design studio. I ended up really liking it and becoming a partner there and growing my own business. So I get to have a lot of creative freedom and I get to make stuff every day as part of my job and through that job I actually started working with the company Theresa had worked for in the marketing and communications department. So that's how we initially met through work and we were also living in the same neighborhood.

We had a lot of connections, and I am a mom and I'm a local artist and I love doing all things creative, and Theresa and I both are dog lovers. We knew that, and so when she had this idea for a book, because of all of our connections, she came to me and asked me if I'd like to do it. My daughter was I think she was two, just two at the time Very young, and becoming a mother really changes the way things and want to do things, and it probably would have made more sense for me to be like this is not a good time, but I was deep in children's books at the time, like reading them constantly, seeing them in a whole different way, and that really made me want to jump into this project, and so I said yes. And here we are.

That's great. Sometimes it's all about the timing, even if in some ways, like you said, it's not right. Oh, there's so many other things going on. There's always a reason that it happens when it does.

That's for sure, and that really applies to our collaboration, because I knew that if Jen said yes, then we could move it forward. If it wasn't right for her, I don't think we would have done it, because I just knew that she would have to be the person to do the illustration. She's always got me, and at first that was in a professional capacity because we worked between our two professional roles. We just became friends and we had a lot of things in common, and so I had a feeling she would get what I was hoping to do, and I did think it could go either way. Because she had a two-year-old. I thought the same thing. I thought she might not have any time to do this, but then the other side of me thought but wouldn't that be great, because she's totally in that world now. She would understand where I'm coming from as a mom Also, at that time, by then my two boys were grown and gone, and so that was a big part for me.

I needed to find something else to put my heart and soul in, and of course, indy completely influenced me to go ahead and do that. But I had thought about it pretty much ever since adopting her, and I adopted her in 2008. But we didn't come out with the first book until 2018. We had no guarantee going in. We had Jen and I like to share that we did have some advantages, just because of what we do in our professional lives somewhat related. We knew the world of publishing and I come from a journalism background. That's what I started out doing and I was a journalism major and worked at newspapers and magazines as a writer and editor and then went into the marketing communications world and Jen with her design background. We just decided we knew we could make something that we would really like and if that's all it was going to be, that's all it was going to be. But we were helping people with Connect with it and they really did.

That's great. So before we get into the books themselves, can you talk a little bit about the story of you adopting Indy and how that came to be?

That was a true meant to be moment. I saw Indy's ad, if you will, from the Kern County Animal Shelter. She was like a pet of the week and I still remember her name was Bree and her description was a terrier mix and that she loved to be loved. That was her description. So she caught my eye and I wanted to look into the possibility of adopting her. We were, my family and I, were talking about getting a dog and I went up to go look at her at the county shelter back when it was off of Mount Vernon where the city shelter is now. My family couldn't make it. I think the boys were in school, my husband was at work, but I went and looked at her anyway and walked her around and really liked her, took her picture with my phone and then when I brought her back in, of course they're like wanting to sign me up and adopt her and I said I have to talk to my family about it and I really can't adopt her if they're not here and they're like okay, and I didn't leave any name or contact information. That was just the end of that.

And just a couple of days later I was working for my job. At the time we were, we had sponsored a pet event at a dog park and I got there early and I was helping to set up and I knew that the county shelter was coming but it's supposed to be just for rabies shots. And so we were told they, their booth space or whatever, was relatively small. And then I saw them arriving and they had their giant trailer and I thought one. I'm like I don't know where we're going to put them, because that's not what it says on the chart Two. I'm like why did I need this giant rig just for rabies shots?

Turns out they decided, since it was a dog park and they figured families would be coming to this event, they decided to bring some dogs and cats. And that's what the man told me when he got out of the truck and I said by any chance, did you bring this dog? And I had the picture still on my phone and I showed it to him and he said, yes, I have her in the back. And I literally got chills and I said can I see her?

And so he brought her out, put her on a leash for me and I walked her around again and everybody said, oh, is that your dog? Is that your dog? What a cute dog. I knew she was gonna get adopted, so I called home. Nobody answered and I thought, oh my goodness, she's gonna get adopted. So I said I'm just gonna do it and I filled out the paperwork and paid the $75 for the best thing that ever happened to me. And so I ended up doing exactly what I said I wouldn't do because my family wasn't with me, but I just knew in my heart she was the right dog for us and I brought her home and I just opened the door and said we got a dog.

That's amazing. I always say the pets that were meant to have find us.

She found me for sure she was even on TV, so the chances of people coming to get her, I think, could have been pie. In fact, I was told later that the groomer who had volunteered to make her spruced up came to the event later that day after I had left with Indy and came to see her because she didn't need another dog. But she'd been such a good dog when she groomed her that this groomer was willing to adopt her if nobody else had gotten her. And they told her no, somebody had adopted her. She got a good home and I was told that the groomer was very happy about that.

And back then. The shelters are very different now, unfortunately for a lot of reasons. But even smaller dogs weren't as common in shelters and they weren't as overcrowded. So a lot of times if there was a great dog or a very cute dog they would go pretty fast if people knew about them.

Indy was there, for it breaks my heart to think about it including myself. I left her there for an extra two, three days, and she was there for a total, though, for over a month. How old was she when you adopted her? They estimated they tried Julie saying that she was two years old, but I knew enough about dogs, I knew she was older than that, but that wasn't a negative to me. I thought, okay, she's through the puppy-ness and somebody had trained her. She was already housebroken. I discovered she could sit, she would lay down, she could shake for a treat, she could dance, so somebody loved her.

She had been a pet. She had been a pet to somebody and I don't know the circumstances. 2008 was also the height of the foreclosures, so maybe that had something to do with that. The shelter, and they said that people leave dogs at parks, unfortunately, thinking somebody will take her.

Yeah, unfortunately that all still happens, but definitely that makes sense. When I was young gosh I don't remember how old I was Five or six my dad got us a dog from the then the county shelter and she they didn't know for sure One or two-year-old golden retriever, and she was fully trained too. Somebody lost an amazing dog. She was the sweetest, she knew how to do everything. She let us climb all over her. So sometimes there's reasons they end up there and then they find their true forever homes, which just sounds like what happened with Indy.

And that's what we put into the book, because pretty much literally from that moment, I would often wonder what her story was and where she came from and where she went and maybe what type of owner she had. And that's what led to the children's book and I thought it could be a way that I could do a story and take her through Bakersfield and Kern County. And that's what I brought when I had a story. That's what I brought to Jen and told her what I was hoping to accomplish. And I still remember that, jen, it's like you got it from like the very first second when I was trying to say what I wanted it to do. And then we just started feeding off of each other's creativity completely.

I love that you started with a point, with a story, but you also with all of them, and especially the newest one. You guys really celebrate Bakersfield, your hometown, my hometown, in a way that anybody can read it. There's a lot of great information in it, but the illustrations, I would say definitely, jen, bring the story to life. When you see little Indy on the cover, you can just imagine the personality. I had a little cocker terrier mix and a lot of Indy personality comes from the books reminds me of him, and so can you guys talk a little bit, jen, for you hearing, teresa, I assume you probably met, even met, indy in person or through pictures. How did you bring Indy to life in terms of the illustration?

So I did know Indy.

I knew her from in person and then also through Teresa, and our pets have personality and then humans magnify those when we like speak for them and talk about them and give them their own characteristics and like associate things with them ourselves.

And that's what we did with Indy and we knew that she was gonna be the main character of this book and she was such a special dog and so we just started planning on what are her key features, how can we bring her to life? And it became book Indy. In real life Indy and really book Indy just became the imagination, personality, her sweetness, the way she would act we even have had conversations about Indy would be like this, or Indy would be concerned about this. So we have to draw it like this because this would make Indy sad. She wouldn't wanna hurt her friends, feelings or things like that. So we know Indy's personality and then book Indy is that personality from the dog magnified, and that's where the imagination comes in and she gets to do all of the things that real life dog Indy wouldn't have been able to do Drive a car and things like that.

Yeah, we had fun extrapolating what she could do, but the personality-wise it was based on reality and then what we added on what we felt like we even said on Indy brand. If it was on Indy brand, it worked.

In our books there's certain things that just didn't feel like what she would do or what she would endorse, so that's so great Because it's true, our pets all have their own unique personalities and that's why I always say when people try to get, say I have to have a certain breed, I'm like it's not really about the breed, it's about the individual pet's personality. We have three cats right now and they all have three very distinct personalities, Even though people sometimes in cats even don't have them. But it's so true of cats and dogs. Even we have two tortoises and they do have two different personalities. It's so important to embody that, and I've spoken to a few people more recently about writing about pets and the great thing about writing. Like you guys said, they get to do things they would never get to do in real life, but it's still only stuff that you could imagine them really doing and truly who they are.

There was even in the first book. Jen illustrated something that actually happened with India that I had told her about, where she had stolen some Easter candy that I had bought for my coworkers and she still I think most of her life still had that shelter dog mentality sometimes, where I've got to take something and put it away for rainy day and she ended up burying the treats. But I didn't know that until months later she dug them up and there they were peeps Easter peeps and they were still in the package. She didn't even eat them or anything. Yeah, she hid them away, and so that's actually in the first book. There's a pay and I told Jen that story and she thought it was fun and worked it into the book.

For the first book. What was when you talked about the story and kind of the purpose? What was really your mind in terms of what you wanted to get across to anyone who might read it?

I wanted to, in a way, tell Indie's story, and I also felt like anybody who adopts a shelter dog probably has some of those same thoughts.

You do wonder where did they come from, what was their situation, where did they live, what type of family did they have, that kind of thing and so I knew that could be common. But I wanted to take her shoe, our community, and highlight some things about our area that would be specific and I thought that this would be a way that we could do that, so that we would have the common story with people who've adopted a dog, but then we would have the uniqueness of showing her going through our county and in a way that people could be proud of where we are. I've always felt I'm not a Bakersfield native, julie, but I came here in 1989 and have lived here ever since and raised my family here, and I love it and I just think there's so much about it that can be celebrated and I think that there's a lot of people, even natives, that may not realize some of the historical background on some famous things, either places or people or movements that started here, and I thought the book could possibly open up that conversation.

No, that's great. I think I'm third generation on my mom's side, born and raised here in Bakersfield. My grandmother went to what? Used to be and her and her family lived across the street from it.

Oh my goodness and we had that house in the family when I was still a young kid, so I get that, and a lot of people who don't live here sometimes have assumptions about this area from ways in which we are portrayed or made fun of in movies and TV and no place is perfect. But there is a lot of history here in a lot of different ways and one of the ways is the music, which is what you guys really focus on in the most recent book that just came out, so can you talk a little bit about that? So the newest book is Indio Indeed, learning the Bakersfield Sound. Why was it important to the two of you to have that as a focus for this book?

Why was it important for us to talk about the Bakersfield Sound? Theresa, do you wanna take this one? Because you are really the driving force behind this.

I was but Jen hinted at it several times in our books and I actually recalled this for somebody very recently.

It's represented in the first book with, actually, jen's dog, ben, is playing the Bukkowans guitar and Indi is playing the harmonica and she's actually wearing it's on her, she's wearing a hat with a little flout, oh yeah, and she's got a little. This is when they were on the train and so to us the train represented Merle Haggard, but I was worried it maybe didn't represent Merle enough, perhaps. And if you made me choose between Buck and Merle, if you made me choose, I would probably choose Merle. And knowing that, jen added one more little feature that we like to we only tell a select group of people this on Indie's knapsack, because she looks like she's a trained hobo. On her knapsack is a little pin and it's a pair of silver wings, and that's one of my very favorite Merle Haggard songs is Silver Wings. So he's represented there as well as Buck in the first book, and then he comes back around, or the sound the Bakersfield sound comes back around in the alphabet book.

It's definitely been, because our goal the entire time was to showcase where we're from and to create community pride, because there's not a lot of that here, especially for young kids that are reading these books, and it's the mentality to grow up here and just diss it and hate on it. But there's a lot of good that can come from being proud of where you're from, especially going away and learning and bringing back all of your new knowledge and skills to your community. We hope that happens, and so we've always weaved it throughout the book, because we wanted to show the things that are special about Bakersfield, and that's one of the things that is obviously special about Bakersfield. There's a whole genre of music that was created here and I'll be honest, I don't I didn't know a lot about the Bakersfield sound when we started.

I'm not very musical. I didn't grow up listening to country music. So I learned a lot through this book because of Teresa's writing and it's really fun to get that perspective of okay, I'm a good focus group, what will the kids learn, because I had to learn everything for the book as well. But then we always weave those special details into the story and so it was really fun to get to focus on that country aesthetic for a whole book for me Because even though I didn't really listen to the music and things like that, I really enjoy the style and the aesthetic that comes with, like that country sound and the characters and the outfits they got to wear and things like that.

No, I think that's so great. So many of the things you said. Yes, growing up here there's always that point we go through where we're like we'd like to diss our town. There's reason, especially as teenagers. But yeah, I've never been a country music person, like to listen to it a lot.

But I knew about a lot of it because my dad was involved in radio and TV Before I was born. When I was younger we had a family furniture store and he did all the radio and TV ads for it and he knew a lot of the country people and he was very proud of all of that. So I knew the names, even if I didn't know the songs. And then my husband worked at the Bakersfield Museum for a long time and so he worked on the moral Haggard train car home. So it's, it is. I've been born and raised here.

But there's all these little pieces that come to me First of all. When I read it I thought, oh, I wish my dad was still here, because he would think this is so great. He would love how you guys have brought the history and the music into life in a way that kids can learn about it and it's fun. So I just have to say that it made me really happy to read it. I love the way you approach it and even the activity book and all of that too. It's just such a great and fun way, because a lot of the people that do have that firsthand experience of those people and the Bakersfield town aren't here anymore. So I think it is such a great way, especially for all the kids growing up here, to really get a piece of that. So I think that's just so great that you guys really focused on that in this one.

Thank you so much. That's exactly what we're trying to do, because otherwise things get lost and we don't have any problem with kids wanting to aspire to go somewhere else. It'd be great if we always we say this in our school assemblies we think it's great. If they want to go away, that's wonderful. We just want them to remember where they came from and have good memories about that and have a base of knowledge of what was accomplished here and the school assemblies. Julie, that we do that your nephew went to.

That was a happy accident. I wish I could tell you that was part of our, but it really wasn't right. Jenna, the first time we were asked we were like school assembly, huh, and we thought that might be good. That's actually become one of our most favorite parts of the adventure is being able to go to schools and talk to large groups of kids, and we've even come to find that the books are helping to educate even the teachers from all ages. But we realized some of the teachers they're going to be in their 20s. So some of the things that we hint at in our books are things that aren't here anymore, and these are young professional adults that are saying I didn't know that the Bakersfield Arch used to be over Union Avenue and that kind of thing. And how would they, unless they encountered somebody that knew about that before?

And I have to say I love that. The Bakersfield Arch. I know it's on this current book, but it was on your first book as well, because it is such a staple here. But, like you said, it did growing up. For me it was on Union and then it moved when they built Buckowen's Crystal Palace, Right, but like you said, anybody probably under 30 never saw it anywhere else.

They never saw it there and it's just something that and I can. I can absolutely see how things can get lost in history, because people will make assumptions like why wouldn't they know that? They wouldn't know that because it's not there and it's not something they're going to encounter in their regular everyday lives that the iconic sign used to be in a different place and we're very thankful.

Especially because even I know for me I was, I'm 46, so they tells you that but Bakersfield is such a different place in terms of size and growth and just the number of schools we have, compared to when I was in school and things like that. My nephew, the school he goes to, is way out there, by way out off of 178, where there's several new schools now that didn't exist even 10 years ago. So, like you're saying, what a great part of the book series you guys are capturing is that history that is important to be proud of but also to teach, because, of course, the kids, like you said, there's a lot of people, adults, that don't even know the history If that was never a part of their own family's history.

No, and it's. That's the one thing about with schools. We love being able to bring something that they're not able to cover in what they're teaching, which is I totally understand that, but it's great that they're open to us talking about it and just changes things from our first.

So did the school's assembly start with your first book?

Yes, yeah, that's where it started Shortly after the first book came out is when we started getting asked if we would do school assemblies. And Jen and I point to the very first sale of our book. Remember this, jen, when we did the signing and reading at the Boulevard had just opened and we did our launch there. The very first person in line and he bought three copies was an older gentleman and he bought them for his fully adult sons and he said that they have all moved away from Baker Show, that they still loved it, but they all moved away and they were a big dog family. So I remember Jen and I having that discussion. I never thought that our very first sale would be an older man who wanted him for his three adult sons. It's just not where I get the vision wasn't that, and the vision wasn't school assembly. So I think it's our delving into this world. It's a great example of you minds will just go for something because you don't know what it's going to take on.

Where a lot of our surprise comes from is that we created the first book having no idea what was going to happen. We just knew the things we loved. We decided to do it and I tell this to people at the time I'm glad we did it without a lot of knowledge, because we might have scared ourselves out of trying to do it.

And now look where we ended up. And people love dogs and they want to be able to communicate and share where they're from, and people love books, and so it just really connected with people in a way that we didn't expect. And so now, looking back, of course this was, taylor, made for a school presentation. It's perfect, but we just didn't know where it was going to go. We didn't know, yeah, and who our audience was, or who would buy our book or who would ask us to do things, because we just made it on a whim, really A long time dream that we finally took action on, because Treepe for quite a while in her head before we actually made it.

It was just gelling, it was marinating, and now the difference is this latest book, learning the Bakershield Sand, when we could focus just on this one subject. I remember telling Jen I already had visions of the school assembly. I have not put that program together yet, but I was thinking about it even when we did the coloring and activity book and with that and you can see that they're really linked, where we always had a vision for them to be linked. But we were looking for something that we could have come out last year before the holidays and it wasn't feasible to do a storybook by them. But it was feasible to do the coloring activity book and we just figured the one thing Jen and I have learned, being independently published we like to say indie pub we can put things out in the order that we want to. You may more likely see a storybook come out first and then some sort of complimentary product comes with it shortly thereafter. We did the reverse just because it was better for our timing and I have no regrets about that. I think it gave us some time to gel some more ideas on what we would do with the story I think the two items together if you were to do the coloring book, the activities in it, and then read the storybook.

At the end of both of those, either a child or an adult, you have Flink, baker Schultz, sound 101. You have a working knowledge. That's the average. Yeah, exactly. And then we fully hope and expect these days that Google can take over from there a little bit more. And then maybe a click through to a YouTube video of some old songs and before you know it, my dream is that we've hooked them.

Because that's what happened to me. I didn't know anything about country music or the Bakersfield Sound. I moved here from San Jose in 1989 and my dad told me there's a famous song of Bakersfield called the Streets of Bakersfield, and I remember saying oh really, okay, didn't know anything about it. And, as fate would have it, my husband, who I met that summer he was a photographer at the Bakersfield, california. He was very into country music and it was pretty obvious if I didn't learn something about it, I wasn't going to learn anything about him either, and so I just started to learn about it, became a fan myself.

And then, when we had children, when I was pregnant with my first son, my husband said he's going to play the fiddle, this baby, and I'm like, okay, and he really did. And he started his lessons at six years old and my youngest son started his lessons at five and they're both now 30 and 25. And they still play and they're in a band which is portrayed in this new book, and they're the generation that I feel is out there trying to reinvigorate the Bakersfield Sound. And the people are out there. They want it. Why don't we just have an indie adventure centering on that? I love the book and I love that, the fact that we can introduce people. Jen's won, won down. She now knows the basics of it.

Because I grew up here. I knew who Bucco Owens was, I knew that these things existed. But there's so much more knowledge in the book that really brings it all together in a special way that I didn't really have a knowledge of before. And even coming down to the illustrations, where three so would be like oh, you drew that guitar wrong. I don't know. You've got to monitor me. I don't know these things.

That's so true, but yeah, somebody asked me to draw a guitar. You think about an electric guitar versus a non and there's so many all the different kind of, even, like you said, the fiddle versus a violin. Like some people wouldn't even know. There's a difference.

Yeah, we put that in the activity book because that's a really common question.

No, and it's funny you guys talked about it, because when I you sent me both the new book and the activity book and I just assumed they came out together. But I can see how you wanted to get something out until you did it, but it really was laying the foundation. Then you were able to build the story from there.

for the book itself. I say the coloring activity book was almost like our primer and then we went from there. It just needed to have the on Indie brand story to go with it. And I really like how it opens with Indie and her friends they're going to go to a concert at the Fox, right? And that's the picture you're getting. And it even says on the marquee that it's a Bakershield Sound concert.

But they suddenly realized which is funny, right, they're going to the concert and at that moment they realized they don't know what the Bakershield Sound is. Then that was our ability to have Telly have his moment. And I remember telling Jen I think I found a way for Telly to have his moment because we were really wanting to focus on him at some point. And I have a Telly story that's still out there. I don't know if we'll ever do anything about it with it, but whether we do or not, telly got his moment to teach Indie and her friends about the Bakershield Sound and therefore teaching the reader. And then, if you see, by the time you get to the end of the story, not only do the friends know about the Bakershield Sound, but they've suddenly formed a band and they're performing and they take a bow at the Fox. I think that's a great example of how you can take something that's a goal and find a way to make it your own, but still say something I still think our books, even other children's books, they have something to say.

I'm looking through it as you're talking about it and, jen, the way you portray the animals with their little hats and their costumes is just so adorable and, like I said, we have tortoises, so I really love the turtle character. Yeah, I can just imagine Low maintenance pit Right, they are half the year. They are low maintenance. They're asleep in our garage currently, but my husband takes care of them.

He grew up with tortoises which is something common here in Bakershield because we have that the climate for them. But one of the things I was thinking about, especially in the activity book Jen for you, what it was it like with respect to creating some of the images, when you are creating them of real people. Was that something you had done before? How was that different for you than versus some of the animal characters?

The activity book and that's another reason we did it first is because it could come together quickly. That line drawing style is something I do often just for my own personal work, like on Instagram and things like that. I like to do those kinds of doodles when I get into the books, like the picture books, we're infusing that with a ton of detail and layers and meaning and I work digitally. So I draw on a tablet and that allows Teresa and I to have that back and forth connection, whereas if I did it with paint or pencils it'd be like maybe I can try to fix that, but digitally lets us have that back and forth.

When it came time to tackling the people, especially for the activity book which came first, I would just look at reference photos, see poses I like, what facial expressions I liked, and then try to just capture those main details so you can tell who it was. But that was actually pretty easy for me because I do that kind of thing a lot. I would say the book was a little more challenging in getting all of the things that we want in there and all of the meaning and the layers. My favorite page was when they first opened up into the classroom because I put all the little hidden details on the walls and things like that, and then there's lighting and shading and things like that. So the activity book is pretty simple because we wanted to leave it open for people to be able to color and do their own thing in there, and so it's a lot more open to interpretation versus the book itself, where we're world building essentially no that makes so much sense.

I'm glad I asked that, because I wouldn't have really thought about that way and you just said that. So I'm looking at the pictures of the classroom and I realized how much is in the background. It's the indie book covers, it's the letters from the A to Z and all that stuff that you really are Like you said, you're layering and there's so much more to it than just the characters, and so you've really created a world.

Exactly. That's one of the best compliments we can get, specifically for Jen. When people say every time I read it, I see something else. I think of something else because it's going to be details that maybe they didn't see the first time. And I promise you that Jen and I talk about those details like ad nauseam. In fact, julie, one of the things that we identified when we made the first book at the end of the book and now we get it.

But at the end of the book, when we were done with the process and it had been sent to print, I said to Jen I'm like this is really strange, it's a strange feeling. I have this feeling, almost for lack of a better term. At the time I was like it's almost like sadness, and she said I know, I feel that way too. So, basically, what we figured was the creative process, just as two people that have that mindset and love to do what we do and this is our passion project it was a moment of oh, it's over, or at least that portion of it was over, and so we felt that, because we didn't know we were going to make more books, we didn't know if it was going to be successful. So in some ways the best part was over. What we thought was the best part was over. And now that we've identified that when we make a new book, I just I personally tried to really be immersed in it, because it's the part that I really enjoy. And now that I know that something, I just know that something cool will come out of it, that maybe that just even adds to the experience. But I love even the writing.

When I get stuck. That can be hard sometimes, because I took that road of making them rhyming books and I'm glad, like Jen said, I'm glad I didn't do research on that, because you'll find a lot of people say that you shouldn't do that. Basically, that whole Dr Seuss did it and no one's going to do it any better and all that great stuff and you could get discouraged if you let yourself and if you know too much. We didn't know enough for that. So I knew that my kids responded to rhyming books and I always envisioned that it would rhyme. Even when I get stuck, I still try to remember that the best part of it is the creating and finding a solution. I think Jen and I have done that with each other. If I'm stuck on the words and I tell her this is what I'm trying to get to. Or if she's stuck on an illustration, what do you think you were envisioning at this time? Or what do you think if I go this direction, we just build from there and we the back and forth.

A lot of times in picture book making you have the author that sends it to the illustrator, that sends it to the designer, the publisher, and we're just working together back and forth. And a lot of times Theresa gives me input and I ask for input on what she's picturing when I make the illustration. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I know exactly what I'm going to do. And then there is that rare occasion where it goes the opposite way, where I'm like, can we maybe? And I'll talk through some of the words and make changes. I don't think it happens that way as often, because the words come first and I'm really here to carry out the vision of what the writing is. But we've had that once in a while, so we really get to collaborate and be a partnership instead of just drawing what he asks for. Vice versa.

We at the first year we had the book. Jen and I actually joined an organization for children's book authors and illustrators because we wanted to learn a little bit more and just figure out where we might take what we were doing. And we joined it and they had a conference event that we went to and it was so enlightening for us. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But at the same time it taught me and, turns out, jen too that what we learned from that is that we didn't want to go the traditional route. We just they had speakers who literally had waited 18 years to get published and also never collaborated with their illustrator.

The process is very business-like, which I understand. In the end it's a business, but I could not envision that ever. Like I told you, the collaboration was the best part. Under those rules, we would have never been able to create the way that we created. In fact, I think it was Jen that gave it a name. We called it the Indie Magic. We could tell when we were in the zone of the Indie, magic would come. And I think if we'd gone the traditional route which honestly the traditional route just wasn't right for what we were doing and our goals but if that had been an option. I just don't think it would have ever been the same we learned that we don't want to do it that way.

I was thinking earlier when you were talking that I know that a lot of times it's the story and the story gets sent to someone to create what the story is about. But you guys are really creating both parts of the story the images and the words together, and back and forth. I'm sure that makes it a much more powerful product in the end, not to say, the other children's books that are created the other way aren't great, but for you guys it really was about the collaboration that fueled the creativity.

Exactly. I think our books have a purpose that's a lot different than a traditional publishing route would take, where it's really become a vessel for community and change and educating people about these pets and how special it is to have a shelter pet and to take pride in your community. If you love where you live, you'll want to help these abandoned dogs, you'll want to help these shelters, and so it all cycles around back to our goal and being this platform that we've developed for ourselves, and so we just do it a little differently, because it's more than just a book for us, right?

No, I think what you said is so important. That's why I do this podcast is for people to understand why rescue and fostering an adoption is important, but also the impact it can have on you personally when you actually get to do it yourself and have that experience. You're also educating kids about what that means in terms of what does it mean to adopt a pet, what does it mean to what is a shelter and all of those things.

Every assembly we have a section in the presentation that talks that clearly identifies that Indie was a shelter dog, and I still use her adoption papers from the shelter and show her photo and in her photo she looks scared. She doesn't even really look like the same dog. And so my messaging to the kids which honestly, that's who we've got to get to We've got to get to the kids to learn what responsible pet ownership looks like, and we always tell them adopt, don't shop. And there's great animals. And then when they see Indie and the real life pictures of her and a really fun video of her that we play at the end, I know that they're walking away with whatever perception they may have had about shelter animals.

I know for a fact we've changed it and the ripple effects of that. The one time I do remember somebody sent me a text with a photo of a dog that they adopted from the SPCA and on the way home the mom asked the little boy, what do you want to name the dog? And he said Indie, like the books, and I basically told her I'm like we could just stop right now and be done, like we could just drop everything and I'd feel good, and so that was just one little ripple effect that someone took the time to tell us about. Who knows what else could be out there or will come because of that, and to me that's what it's about. It's one animal life at a time.

It's so funny. I had another author on recently who talked about how she had sent her book, which was about dogs writing letters to their grandmother. And she attended to the publisher and the publisher basic the person she got it basically said I don't really like these kind of books. I'll give it a shot. And they went through the process and before it had even been published, he emails her and says this is the dog I just adopted because of you, because of going reading your book and going through this process and learning about the rescue dog in it. And one dog's life, one animal's life saved, like you said, is worth it. That's the whole purpose of what we're doing and I think it's so important. What you said it's the kids. It's the kids that need the education, because a lot of times kids are going to educate their parents and their grandparents and it's a real we know that to be true.

We just figure and there's such a captive audience. The other thing I think that we love about the assemblies is they're coming in. My husband always jokes to his heck, yeah, they're going to like you guys, like they're getting out of class, everything's great. And then they just love. They love the stories and the presentation and they're learning something. And then there's fun photos of Indie and they see Jen's process. She takes them through to show them how a sketch turns into a real drawing, and we have a pandering section that we call our pandering section, where she presents some real life cartoon dogs and their identifying character.

What is it like you to get to be for the school assemblies? To get to talk to the kids about drawing and illustrating, creating, maybe sparking their interest in doing something like that themselves?

I love that aspect of it because that phrase if you can see it, you can be it and most kids don't really. They absorb all of this content constantly. They're seeing things that are designed, they're watching movies, they're reading books, but you don't really have that bridge to understand that's an actual job that somebody can do. And so here I am, coming in and saying, oh yeah, this is my job, this is what I get to do. I get to do art and design and the books are really more of a passion project. But we get to make the books because my job was already art and design related. So I think it's really cool to help kids understand that this is a career they can have and it's valuable and they can pursue that if they'd like to. And I'm always on a soapbox about artistic careers being valuable and worthwhile if that's what people want to pursue.

So it's really exciting for me to get to this with young children especially, yeah, I'm sure especially as a mom, because you're getting to teach other kids like yours. But yeah, when I was little, I loved drawing, and I'm sure if something like that had been presented at my school, it may have inspired me to do more of it. And, like you said, though, especially in our world where they're constantly seeing images in different ways, that it's really easy for them to have no idea that someone had to create that image in a process.

And I think that I know or when I have people say, oh, my kid's really into art and wants a job. They think animation they think they have to work for Pixar, they think they have to get discovered and become a big name, like work for big publishers. But it's much broader than that and it's funny too, because we go into these schools and it's like they might have a perception of us that's bigger than it actually is, but really we're just people that live here and work here and these get to be our jobs to be creative and to do things like this. So I think that's valuable messaging too, that you don't have to be a big, famous artist or work for a huge company. There's all kinds of different creative careers that you could get into.

Yeah, no, I love having people who are. I've had people on the podcast that do pet portraits, which I think are amazing, and even myself, being in podcasting the last two years, I've realized how much more there is like cover art and logos and all these things that I hope someday I can afford to pay someone to do better versions of for me than just using Canva. But there's so many elements to creation that unless you're in it, you don't necessarily know it, and there's so much in podcasting that's connected to writing, blogging, books and then the visual aspect of presenting it, but, like you said, they don't know it exists until someone tells them this is how it happened. So I'm sure that your school assemblies are really great because there's so many layers to what you're educating the kids on, beyond the book itself.

Yeah, it is. It's just like I said, it's dogs, baker-svelled books, like at all layers, like this great little array of things that we get to share about and break down and sometimes the presentations and where things go with the kids in these assemblies when we have time to ask questions that go in really unexpected ways or really thoughtful questions that we were surprised came from the kids. But they really think about these things and you can tell that they're really putting it all together.

That's so amazing. I can just think their imagination's right at a point where they're seeing in a way that we would have never even thought about.

That the kids, that the times that they are surprised that we're from baker-svelled the automatic sense of I'm going to get to do something cool.

But I have to leave to do it.

And these people? Yeah, they see us and they think we must be coming to them from LA or the Bay Area or something. There's no possible way that we're from baker-svelled. So I hope that's an impression. That's another impression we're having.

I simultaneously love that they think that we're bigger than we are. Yeah yeah, Love the after-breaking that. Yeah oh, we're just. We're from here too. It's fun.

Yeah, I just lived down the street, or whatever it may be. I think maybe a great place to end would be to talk about for you and who knows where this will go for you guys as you continue to create books. So you created this legacy of Indy beyond Indy herself, and so for both of you, what this is a pet podcast. Coming back to the pets and I know it's a really big reason why you guys started these books is what do you want people to know in terms of not just even Indy's legacy, but your legacy in creating these characters, and why pets are just so important and why we want to educate more people about them.

I think that's where I'm coming from is just being able to, like Jen said, help the platform to talk about the importance of responsible pet ownership and to make people aware of how great the animals can be. If just given the chance and that's what Indy was for us is, we gave her a chance and she ended up inspiring a whole series of children's books. And that's just one story. It doesn't have to be that big. If she did nothing else but the best dog ever that she was, that would have been enough too. So I think people feel Jen has said this before too people feel the loves that we put into the books, because that's coming from our true love of rescue animals and community, and so that's the legacy that I'd like to see them leave.

What about you, Jen?

The one thing. Like I mentioned, the book has multiple layers and goals and ways that we can share and educate, but the coming back to the pets is always the most important thing for us, because the love for these books came from the love of our pets and the love that they give back to us. And if people take a chance on a pet, that love in your life is so empowering and life-changing to have something that just loves you unconditionally and forgives fast and just want to be accepted and loved. And that's what these pets do for us and they're here for us and staring into these big brown eyes over here and I get all of you. My baby is 12. My dog baby, my real baby, is seven and being able like.

The best thing about creating these books is that we lose our pets in our lifetime because it's just the unfairness of loving a dog or a cat and that we will live longer than them. But that love is permanent in our hearts and now we've made it permanent through these books and we get to keep sharing it and sharing it with other people and hope that inspires them to let that love into their lives and to bring in a pet too. So I would say that's our ultimate goal is just bringing it back to our love for animals and hoping that people are inspired to bring a pet into their lives and give them that love in that home Exactly.

And then having the books, julie. It does give us the. It gives us the ability to answer the call out from our local groups. I'm proud to say that on Giving Tuesday we were able to donate a total of $450 to three different animal rescue group missions, and that makes us feel really good to have the ability to do that. Our books are not a big business per se. We're not going to be on the stock market. We've found a formula that the books that we make do well enough that we can continue to make books. But they also give us the ability to donate books, to donate money to host events where we ask for people to bring things that the shelters are asking for. So that's another part of it. We get to give back to animals that give us so much.

Yeah. So that's a whole of that. People don't realize every piece of it matters. The education the kids all ages need to be educated.

The piece of inspiring someone to adopt, because who rescued you? They're going to rescue you right back, probably 10 fold Right, because they just have all the love waiting to give you and no matter what their backstory is their unconditional love. None of that really matters in the end when you give them the time and the commitment. But also, you know, like you've said, is not, it's the monetary donations that are rescues and shelters need so desperately right now, whether it's actual money or donations, as well as time. I've learned that I had never volunteered for a rescuer shelter before I started this podcast, and so you realize the value in your time, whether it's hosting events for them or volunteering in the shelter, or fostering and volunteering your time in your home. All of those things are so important and if one book can do that for one person, like you guys said, you've achieved what you want. And it pets, our connection, pets and stories and books, and people will stop the scroll when I have a cute picture of a dog and they'll go oh, there's a podcast.

And I know you guys have the same thing with your book and so it's a powerful tool and, like you said, you guys have had a creative relationship that's allowed it to be something that people respond to. So, from my perspective, I want to thank you guys for putting your time and energy into this, because you are educating the next generation and so many others, not just about pets but our community, and I think that's great and I just hope more I'm going to keep posting it and more people will buy it and they'll learn and they'll say you know what? That Indie was a pretty awesome dog. I might have to go find myself one too. I would be great.

Yes, thank you both. Again, it was so great to meet you both in the setting. Hopefully we live I don't know how many minutes away from each other that we can work together in other capacities. I'm always. I'd love to work with you guys on whatever I can do to help promote your books, but also just the message of pet adoption and also just education, and there's so many layers to it that we can help with, and I really I love meeting you and hearing more of your story and seeing that connection of what the purpose is behind both of you, so thank you for your time.

Thank you for giving pieces of you to the listeners to learn about you and your stories and where these books are coming from, and I hope that after hearing this, many more people are going to comment by these books. They're great gifts for kids of all ages, so just thank you again for being here. It was great to meet you both and get a little picture of the pets that have been in your lives. If one person listening decides to foster or adopt from this conversation, it'll be worth it for all three of us.

Absolutely yes. Thank you so much, Julie. Thank you.

Thank you, my friend, for being here and listening to this episode of the story of my pet podcast. I hope you were inspired and touched by this amazing pet story and I hope you come back to listen to more episodes soon. Make sure you don't miss any new episodes by clicking subscribe wherever you are listening to this podcast right now. Want to help the podcast grow? Then hit rating and review wherever you are listening to this podcast. Every review helps get the podcast in front of more people and heard by more listeners, so that the podcast can inspire more people to rescue, foster and adopt animals in need today. Thank you so much for being here and much love to you and your pets.