Black dogs (and cats!) are harder to get adopted than their paler-furred friends. And, looking through picture books, I've struggled to find stories about black dogs. Plenty of dogs with black spots, and black patches, but hardly any with pure dark fur. So I'm working on a picture book story about a black dog and here's where I'm at so far. Black Dog is based on our own foster dog, Osito, who we've been fostering now for more than a year. He is the best pet – house-trained, cute, wonderful with children, loves travelling in the car, doesn't bark much, doesn't smell, is deliciously soft – and yet we can't find him a permanent home. We've had many other foster dogs and even got an incontinent dog adopted by a kind family. But Osito? We can't find a home for him. I am convinced that if he was a small white soft and sweet dog, instead of a small black soft and sweet dog, he'd have been adopted in a flash. For now, he's happy with us and we love him dearly.