By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
February 15, 2012

Growing up, Northeast resident Dolores Lorrine Owen didn’t think she’d write a book. In fact, she didn’t even enjoy reading.

“I couldn’t find one (book) that caught my attention,” she said.

It wasn’t until her sixth grade teacher read to the class “The Phantom Toll Booth” that her spark for reading ignited.

“The whole world will open up to you if you just learn to get into books and read them,” Owen said. “You can go anywhere, be transported anywhere. I can’t think of any better magic, really.”

Owen wanted to share that same magic through her newly published children’s book, “Punkin: A dog gone story.”

Told through a dog’s perspective, the book details the adventures of a clever and fun loving dog named Punkin, who in real life died last summer. “Punkin” is a combination of fiction and a few of Punkin’s real life adventures.

“This book was very good and well written!” a reviewer wrote on Amazon. “It caught my attention from the first page and kept me reading (which can be not so easy for me with books). I didn’t want to put it down!

“And I do admit I even got a little teary eyed at the end! I can’t wait til my son is old enough to pay attention while I read it to him!”

Owen, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., said she often used writing as an outlet for her feelings. Through Northeast News and her English classes at Penn Valley Community College, she discovered her writing evoked emotions in people and that she actually “had the ability to write.”

Years ago when Owen turned in a letter to the editor to Northeast News, the editor at the time asked Owen if she wrote it herself and said it looked like an English major composed the letter.

“It was a really great compliment to me,” Owen said, adding that at the time she hadn’t attended college yet. “I can’t tell you how much it bolstered my self-esteem and eliminated the insecurities I had about writing.”

Over the years, she’s held a variety of jobs, including being a tour guide for the American Hereford Association, a researcher for the Hereford Journal, a legal secretary and candy packager at Bitterman Candy Confections.

“It was the funnest job I’ve ever had in my whole life,” she said of working in the candy factory. “I would have worked there for free. It was every kids’ dream.”

Owen, who lives with her partner, Mark, began construing the story of Punkin when Mark temporarily left for Texas to find work. With a quiet house, Owen began carrying on conversations with Punkin.

“She almost seemed human to me,” she said.

Sometimes, Punkin would talk back, responding in the whiny mumble that dogs often do.

“I started to imagine I could actually understand her feelings and what she was thinking,” Owen said. “There were times I would get home from work and she would look at the door like she was expecting Mark to walk through the door. She would look out the window or out the door and then look back at me like, ‘Where’s Mark?’ So, I started writing those stories down.”

One story Owen concocted involved Punkin sneaking a block of cheese from a grocery sack and chowing down. Before sneaking the cheese, Punkin talks about her cheese obsession.

“I believe if given the chance, I could live on cheese only,” Punkin said in the book. “Mark and Lori know this, and they guard their cheese like sticky on tape. They are so stingy with their cheese that I have to resort to the mother of all guilt trips – the how-can-you-eat-my-favoritest-food-in-the-world-in-front-of-me-without-offering-me-a-bite? look.”

Then, there’s the true story of how Punkin despised thunderstorms and would shake uncontrollably.

“You’d think the cloud was right over her head the way she was reacting,” Owen said. “She’d practically walk between your legs to get underneath you. She was just that afraid.”

One time during a storm, Punkin bolted out the front door and the couple found her a few days later hunkered down in a sewer.

“It wasn’t pretty. I had to have three baths to get the sewer smell off me,” the dog said.

Although promoted as a children’s book, “Punkin” is an easy read that’s entertaining for adults, too. (This editor didn’t want to set it down).

Owen’s goal was to make the book interesting for both adults and children, she said. She also hopes the story of Punkin will ignite a child’s love for reading.

“I really think it will turn some kids around about reading,” she said. “Maybe it will inspire somebody to write their own story.”