When one of my fans sent me a picture of two white tiger cubs, I thought they
were adorable. And then when someone mentioned writing about them, I had the
notion of adding a couple of cubs in the next jaguar story, JAGUAR PRIDE.
It's important to always come up with new plot ideas when writing a long-running
series, and this is book 4 of the jaguar shifters. I thought about how fun it
would be to have two JAG agents, super well-trained in rescue missions and more,
who are suddenly faced with dealing with Jaguar Cub Parenting 101 in the
rainforest in a hostile situation.
Right now I'm housebreaking two Havanese puppies. But years ago, I had taken in
a kitten from the Kitty Welfare Society when she was found at a garbage
dumpster. She passed away at 17 years of age after having been much loved for
all those years. But when she was only 6 weeks of age, I fed her milk out of a
bowl and what a mess. The puppies are harder to housebreak, but they have no
trouble eating or drinking out of a bowl or learning commands—sit, down, circle,
stay, and shake as in shake my hand. My kitten was a dream as far as using a
litter box. Natural, no trouble at all. But housebreaking puppies is a constant
effort until they get the notion to let you know they need to go out. I remember
when my Labrador retriever was a puppy, she would sit at the closet door to let
me know she needed to go out.
But what if you have shifters and one minute they're fine, using a litter box,
like a kitten of 4 to 6 weeks can use, and then they're babies, and you don’t
have the necessary diapers and the like?
Babies, puppies, kittens, they all need attention, and lots of it. I've been
reading up on separation anxiety, and I thought that by having two puppies they
wouldn't have separation anxiety. The one doesn't, not after initially getting
him used to his crate. He's a little older, 5 ½ months old, perfectly
housebroken, but the younger one at nine weeks old does. I barricaded them into
one part of the family room so I could take down the Christmas decorations
without them being underfoot so I wouldn't step on them. The youngest barked
nearly the whole time, yet a little fence was all that was between us while I
was only a foot or so away.
I also read up on jaguar cubs and how one big cat reserve takes care of them.
It's rare that jaguars mate in captivity, but this reserve has a couple of
mating jaguars and they've produced several litters. They wean them young from
the mother, and then feed the cubs from bottles, play with them, and even burp
the babies. Who would have ever thought? They had a video of them and I watched
them and used some of their behaviors in Jaguar Pride.
So adding the cubs in the story was a lot of fun, different, and it showed a new
side to the rough and tough jaguar agents. Although they did have to get expert
advice from Huntley's mother on how to feed the cubs, once she could stop laughing.
I'll be dealing with this in the future in another story, but a much different
issue. So be ready for some more fun with the younger part of the equation. And
you never know, I might have to share some puppy behaviors in one.
Have you had kittens or puppies to raise? Or both? And babies? Just think if
your baby was a shifter and someone else was stuck, or, had the fortune of
caring for the baby and you had to shift and so did baby?
It can be a real challenge then! But the perfect opportunity for two courting
jaguars to get a head start on their future with cubs of their own.
Don't you agree?
About JAGUAR PRIDE
An impossible mission...
JAG Special Forces agents Huntley Anderson and Melissa Overton are hot on the
trail of poachers when they're suddenly saddled with two jaguar shifter cubs.
They have to locate the parents, pronto-but who's going to babysit in the meantime?
A lifetime of possibilities...
Huntley is a rough, tough jaguar shifter and an all-business agent, but he's not
going to let two abandoned youngsters come to any harm on his watch.
Seeing her super-manly partner try to get the playful cubs under control stirs
up some unexpected desires in Melissa, and she begins to feel like Huntley's not
the only one who's in over his head...
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Read Fresh Fiction's review of JAGUAR PRIDE.
About Terry Spear
USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has written over two dozen
paranormal romance novels and medieval Highland historical romances. In 2008 HEART OF THE
WOLF was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. A retired
officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry also creates award-winning teddy bears
that have found homes all over the world. She lives in Crawford, Texas.
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