Coffee with a canine: Donna Ball & Kodi, Rhythm, Destiny and Glitter

Today's featured guests at Coffee with a Canine: Donna Ball (also known as Donna Boyd, Rebecca Flanders, and five other people!) and her four long-time companions: Kodi the Collie, Rhythm the blue merle Border Collie, and Golden Retrievers Destiny and Glitter.

Ball, on how the dogs got their names:

My dogs have great names! Kodi is actually Tsalagi Dakota Legend, because I knew he’d be famous some day (and so he is!). Destiny Written in the Stars was trained from puppyhood to be a canine musical freestyle performer, and she did grow up to be a star. She’s appeared on national and international television, in magazines and on book covers, and on the front pages of newspapers wherever she performs. Rhythm came to me with the name “Blue” because of his one blue eye. I changed it to Rhythm and Blues when I realized he had a real talent for dance. The story of how Glitter got her name is probably the funniest. Service dog litters are named according to letters of the alphabet: All the pups in the first litter of the year will have names starting with “A”, the second littler will all have “B” names, etc. When Glitter was born, the organization sent me an e-mail with the subject line “G-litter is here!” It was weeks before I realized my puppy’s name was not actually “Glitter” (it was, in fact, Gwenna) and by that time she was already Glitter in my mind. When I adopted her, I officially changed her name from Gwenna to Glitter and have never...[read on]

Donna Ball published her first book in 1982. Since that time she has written over eighty works of commercial fiction under various pseudonyms. She is known for her work in women’s fiction and suspense, as well as supernatural fantasy and adventure. Her novels have been translated into well over a dozen languages and have been published in virtually every country in the world. She has appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and has been featured in such publications as the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and even T.V. Guide.

Ball's most recent titles are the Ladybug Farm series: A Year on Ladybug Farm (March 2009) and At Home on Ladybug Farm (October 2009). She is also known forThe Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series and, under the pseudonym Donna Boyd, The Passion and The Promise.

Visit Donna Ball's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Donna Ball & Kodi, Rhythm, Destiny and Glitter.

--Marshal Zeringue