Welcome to Wonderland is book 1 of my forthcoming book series. Filled with charming characters, scenic locations and beautiful interiors no detail is left hidden. And the pets are delightful supporting characters with amusing temperaments!
Meet Florence’s two dogs that live in the family home. Pebbles is a beautiful charcoal whippet with grey blue eyes and Piscean energy. A truly feminist male. Sasha, his counterpart is sandy and sassy. She has all the fire of an Aries and bosses Pebbles about.
Elvis and Priscilla are just as in love as their owners Felipe and Valentina. Elvis is a beautiful Siberian huskey with bluey white eyes. And is a deeply loyal companion of Felipe. Priscilla is a “fluffy Chihuahua” (Pomeranian) the colour of cognac dipped in champagne cream. She was given as a gift from Felipe after Valentina suffered a miscarriage. Having always wanted to name her daughter Priscilla this ball of fluff was instead bestowed the name. 
Priscilla is a pampered diva and prone to megalomania. Although sweet and tame she is demanding and exceedingly fussy. She believes she is the Goddess of the Universe and sees Valentina as merely a Duchess in the kingdom she rules in.
Duchess Marie (named after the Aristocat beauties) lives a quiet life of reading and walking through grand parks of New York. She is an erudite, sophisticated and elegant. She is allergic to mass market fiction, soft cheese, dogs, rude people, dog owners, synthetic fibres, processed foods, the
scent of musk, atheists, hot dogs, bad manners, hip hop, and swear words. In the summer she enjoys watching Mr Walters play croquet and backgammon. For many years she has longed to accompany Mrs Walters as she gives speeches at Universities. In the violet-blue eyes of Duchess Marie she is all too aware of the systemic discrimination she has long endured. As we all know dogs can enter public buildings with their owners but cats cannot. The injustice has been imposed for too long. Duchess Marie is seething I tell you – SEETHING! She longs to walk the corridors of NYU and Columbia with her owner. But no… Because she does not wag her tail and drool over everyone she is discriminated against for being the fairer (more hygienic, intellectually superior and prettier) species. She longs to live on the Upper East Side. Though is content spending her days as a cat that lunches and enjoys judging people by the window.
Beware of Lady Marmalde. She is a ginger tabby cat with manipulative and narcissistic tendencies. Her fellow petmate Pumpkin the goldfish lives in fear. Lady Marmalade (that’s Ma’am to me and you) is convinced that she is the most beautiful creature in the world and has an addiction to looking at herself in the mirror. Hobbies include torturing Pumpkin by dipping her paws into his
fish bowl (which has induced PTSD in him.) Alongside stalking squirrels, collecting leaves and gathering debris from nature and flowers to make her own pot pourri. Unravelling knitting balls is another beloved past time and in the winter she wears her signature grey beret and scarf made by Chambray (her owner.)
Gender fluid creamy coloured Bobbi the ferret belongs to Serena. Their preferred pronouns are ze/zir. According to Serena Bobbi’s life was changed forever when one day she wrapped him in a fuchsia ribbon found on the floor after a party and he wore it like a feather boa. In that moment she realised that the ribbon helped Bobbi feel like zir true self!! Bobbi is also fond of pronouns: e/em/eir/eirs and xe/xem/xyr/xyrs. Depending on the time of day Bobbi may identify as male or female. They may also see themselves as non-binary to which Serena has the utmost respect and tolerance for. She encourages it deeply. Serena is also desperate to know if Bobbi is comfortable with the name inflicted on zir. This one time Serena attempted to devote an evening to getting into a meditative state in hopes of receiving telepathic confirmation from her pet of Bobbi’s true thoughts over their name. 7 minutes and 23 seconds into this meditation Serena got bored and ordered take out. She was only 1 minute and 31 seconds away from receiving this telepathic message. Naturally Bobbi wanted to confirm that he was very happy with his name and has never questioned his gender.
As you can imagine Livy does. not. have. pets.
And finally we have Benjamin and Princeton two delightful springer spaniels. They adore visiting Valentina’s bookshop, nibbling on biscotti and reading the Financial Times. They’re close friends with Pebbles and Sasha as well as the squirrels in the park.
