I have two dogs myself and they are always around when I write, so they tend to creep in there.

I know that some of the things which happen in these stories are not likely, but sometimes I wonder if they are not possible in some way.

I never really set out to research any of these stories. I try to lead an interesting life though. I guess the closest I came to research was when I applied to work at the state mental institution in Austin, TX. I wanted to work the night shift like Ken Kesey did when he wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I thought that might inspire me to write a book that great.

I've found that I seek out oddballs; I like strange and eccentric people a lot.

I was living in a house with 11 dogs and all I thought about was dogs. I never had sex with any of them though.

I'm interested in other animals too though. There's the slug in "Mollusks", and I wrote a story about bees and one about a cat which got thrown out a window by mistake, but those never made it into the collection.

I wanted to do a collection where the narrator is constant throughout, so that there's a little unity.