In the middle of March my mom was given a diagnosis of ‘definitely coronavirus’ by a 111 operator. She wasn’t offered a test to prove this diagnosis, she was told to keep hydrated, take painkillers and get back in touch if her symptoms got worse. She was very ill, which isn’t like my mom at all; she is a fierce woman who rarely lets anything knock her off her feet, but this illness floored her for weeks.

My youngest kiddie and I had been in very close contact with her two days before the 111 call and so, as instructed, we went into self-isolation. I informed my employer that I wouldn’t be in work and contacted the nursery attended by my little one to advise them that she wouldn’t be in either. I had just discovered I was pregnant after several consecutive miscarriages and the fear of the unknown illness filled me as I lay awake at night.

The schools were advised to close about a week later and my doctor advised me I should follow the shielding guidance offered by the government, 12 weeks indoors, no contact with anyone outside of my household unless absolutely necessary. Lockdown life began.

Since then I haven’t been at work and I haven’t been able to get out and about with my Flower Guard Books’ Storytime, Craft and Writing Workshops. I have homeschooled both of my kiddies, whilst my partner has worked for the NHS from home. I’ve kept my employer updated about my doctor’s advice of continuing to shield, as any proven information on whether coronavirus could have any increased risk to someone who has suffered recurrent miscarriages is not available and so, I’ve stayed at home. I occasionally get out to walk the dog or get fresh air at the weekends with my family in deserted outdoor spaces, such the countryside and clifftops along our beautiful east Yorkshire coastline, though we never travel far.

The only plus side about being at home all the time is that I know I’m doing the right thing for my unborn baby. If I’m honest, I’m going slightly bonkers because of being confined to these four walls and the rainy weather of the recent week has certainly proved annoying, as we haven’t even been able to be outside in the afternoons, after ‘school’ has finished, but being here is the right thing to do.

I say the only plus side, there are actually two plus sides. The first is protecting the baby of course, but the second is getting the idea for a brand new book. Not only did I get the idea fleshed out in one day, but I’ve also written, illustrated and published the new book in the last two months!

Since homeschooling began I have focussed on my eldest a little more, as she would have been sitting her SATs this year, whereas my youngest isn’t starting school nursery until September and isn’t really the ‘sit down and learn’ type. There has been lots of learning through play for the little one and lots of learning through BBC Bitesize and old SATs papers for the big one. In the afternoons, after learning, we’ve usually been able to get outside and play; the sandpit, watering cans, slide and chalks have been used over and over and over again and some days the kiddies have played so nicely together that I’ve been able to sit and draw, or sit with the laptop and type up the story. This is the reason the book got finished so quickly.

I got the idea for it from watching our ex-racing Greyhound, Maggie, and the way that most days she would look at the sofa with a forlorn longing. Since we got her 6 years ago she has been used to us being out of the house most days, at least during school hours, and even though she’s never really been allowed on the sofa when we’re in, (purely because with her on it there’s not much room for anyone else) we’ve often discovered her on the sofa when we’ve come back from being out.

Now we’re in all the time, she hasn’t been near the sofa at all, she just stands in front of it with sad puppy-dog eyes. I spoke to friends who said their dog could no longer sneak things off the kitchen counter top whilst they were out, as they were home all day too and I started wondering what else pooches up and down the country were missing out on now that their owners were around all of the time. The idea for Pandemic Pooches was born.

I developed the idea by speaking to people about what their dogs did that always got a response of ‘stop’ or ‘don’t’. They came up with a few suggestions and I came up with a lot of ideas myself; a dog that sneaks a nap on the double bed, one who munches on trainers and another whose source of drinking water is positively nasty.

I went back to basics with my illustrations, doing all of the dogs and family pictures in pencil, coloured crayon and black lining pen and just added a few backgrounds on my ArtRage computer software. The book was done and dusted and ready to publish a lot sooner than if I’d only been able to work on it in the evenings.

Pandemic Pooches is now available to purchase from Amazon and as I was finishing it up I came up with the idea that the first month’s royalties from self publication through Amazon KDP would be split equally between NHS Charities Together and the RSPCA. I decided this as I knew that I wanted the book to make a difference and this was the best way I could think of to achieve that.

I’ve since been interviewed about the book for a local newspaper and I had a live interview on BBC Radio Humberside all about it too, which was great fun. I am really proud of this latest book and feel that as time passes and our country, and the rest of the world, finds a new ‘normal’, this book will be something that will encapsulate a time when the world almost stood still because of a virus. There are plenty of books out there at the moment about how people, particularly children, are coping with lockdown and that’s great, but I wanted to do one from a dog’s perspective and hopefully, people will like it.