Meet Rocky. He’s a handsome devil, isn’t he? He’s spunky, goofy, spoiled, the king of the castle, puts a big smile on my face everyday and he’s quite possibly the coolest dude on the planet. If you met him, I know you’d feel the same way.
I’m in the process of getting started on writing a series of children’s books about him and I am working on his character development. Here is why I think my little Rock Monster is worthy of being published, he’s a complex character. Don’t believe me? Take a look…
He is 100% boy through and through. He is rough and tough, likes to get dirty and likes to cause trouble.
His nicknames: Rock, Sir Rocky, Prince Rocky, Monster, Rock Monster, PuppyShark, Lazybones, Frankenstein and Tuxedo Face.
His markings: he’s a brindle little boy, so he’s part black and part brown. He has uneven markings on his face so half of his face is white like it should be and the other half is only half white, if that makes sense. It’s like whoever created the little guy stretched the white down the left side of his face a little too far down which took away the white markings that should’ve been on the other side. As a result, the whiskers on the right side of his snout are black and the whiskers on the left side of his snout are white. They are like old man whiskers…they come out of his nose, eye brows, moles on his face and from under his chin and in all different lengths.
His eyes: are big and brown, like a shade of dark hot chocolate and are very telling. You can see every emotion and thought going through his little head. They are intense, curious, and bug out when he’s nervous…they blink independtly of one another.
His ears: Most terriers’ ears stand up but his are huge and floppy and only stand up on occasion. On a windy day when he’s outside, the wind will blow them straight up just like sails on a sailboat. When they do move, it’s mostly independently of one another. His right ear can be amast in one direction and the other can be turned 180 degrees around the other way listening to whatever is going on behind him.
His nose: always moving, sniffing the air, always wet and cold
His paws: loves to cover his nose with his front paws when he’s sleepy, uses them like hands and holds his bones straight up in the air to chew on them. His front paws have a little white on his toes and his back paws are white up to his ankles. Each pinky toe nail is black and the rest of them are the normal pink color.
His bark: He’s got a NJ accent. He was flown in to us from Kansas and spent his first days with us in NJ since my hubby gave him to me as a Christmas gift while we were visiting family there. He must’ve picked up the local dialect because he’s got a deep, raspy, bark for a little guy. He can play you like a fiddle with his voice -he growls, whines, groans and huffs and puffs all according to his emotional state. Speaking of emotional, he’s a shaker. He shakes when he’s cold, scared and nervous.
He can clear a room with his bodily functions — pee yew! And, he’s certainly guilty of lifting his leg in a few places he shouldn’t have lifted it. When he goes outside, he lifts both back legs on every tree he sees. He’ll lift one leg and squirt and turn around and lift the other leg and squirt. He’s quirky! Speaking of…
His other quirky habits:
– He loves taking baths, takes them once per week and jumps in the tub when you say “Bath Time.” 
– He’s a scardey cat. He runs to the tub when he’s scared and hears a noise like he fire alarm or fire works and hides in there; he even tries to climb up the walls. (That’s what he’s doing in the picture)
– He runs in place like Scooby-Doo when you catch him off guard because he can’t get traction on the wood floors we have in our house.
– He won’t go near power cords, if he is playing with a toy and it rolls near a power cord or power outlet, he will bark until someone gets the toy for him. He’s afraid of his own shadow.
– He’s afraid of black flooring surfaces like he’s afraid he’ll fall right through the floor.
– He won’t fetch a toy if it’s leaning up against a door, cabinet, wall, plant or anything that touches the ground.
– He loves to munch apart area rugs and will snag any sock that he can find laying around the house.
– He watches TV and growls at any animal he sees. His little mouth scrunches up and his wiskers bunch together and he growls. His favorite commercial is the Dentabone commercial with the dogs who have the human teeth and smile.
– When he needs some exercise and it’s too cold or rainy outside, he will do laps around our coffee table. So far his record is 20 laps, but there’s a storm coming so he may beat his personal best distance in the new few days.
– He stretches while he walks putting one leg farther out there in front of the other, like super slow mo’ walking…classic.
– He has a confident swagger about him. He prances and has a little hop in his step when he walks.
– He’s paranoid, he’s hates when anyone walks behind him because he has to know what’s going on at all times.
He’s wicked smart: he has a great vocabulary and understands all of the following words/phrases and probably some more that I’m forgetting…Rocky are you hungry?, breakfast, dinner, wanna go for a walk?, wanna go outside?, go potty, treat, bad boy (he sinks in his chair when we say that one,) bath time, bed time, get into bed, go lay in your bed, momma and daddy.
Toys: one mission, to find the squeaker and destroy. This little guy will place a toy in your hand and nudge at it and you better believe that he’s persistent enough to want to make you play with him, even if you don’t you have no interest in the matter.
Favorite things to do: chase ducks, dig (at anything) and cuddle
He a sleeper: He sleeps 70% of the day. He’ll sleep in his bed, on the couch, he’ll sleep sitting up if he’s tired enough but mostly he with us, under the covers. If you won’t let him under, he will pull them back with this front paws and make himself at home. His sleeping habits: when we all crawl into bed, we make a “Rocky Sandwich” and cuddle with him until we fall asleep. Rocky typically cuddles with my hubby the first half of the night, then makes is way over to me for the other half of the night. It never fails though, every night I wake up to his legs jabbing me in the back because they stiff up while he sleeps, like Frankenstein. And like clockwork, he’ll wake me up with kisses at 7a so he can go out and do his business.
Picky eater: we have about 5 different kinds of dog food in our closet and have to rotate them or else he won’t eat. If we mix foods he’ll spit out the kibble that he doesn’t like and only eat the pieces he does. Favorite table food: white fish, roasted chicken and steak.
He’s trainable: he’ll sit, lay down, shake both paws, stand and can even walk on his hind legs.
Runt of the litter: he’s got a lean body but has long legs and a crooked tail. Everyone always says, “what the heck happened to his tail?” He’s even got a little patch on his tail where his fur is worn off because he always sits on it.
Target for bullies: he’s the dog that every dog on the block barks at, gets bullied all the time at the dog park but he can run like the dickens there isn’t anyone he can’t get away from, except Rufus the big bad German Shepard in the neighborhood. He was once attacked by Rufus and trapped underneath Rufus’ tall legs. He came out of the battle wounded and scarred for life. Rocky learned that bullies stink!
Favorite football team: Giants
I mean, who can resist this face?
If you would like to read more about Rocky, please comment on this post and send ideas my way. I already have the titles for a few of the books including “Rocky the PuppyShark” and “Rocky and his Magic Whiskers” but need your help making him popular enough so I can sit down with a few publishers and get this little guy to print.
Rocky will give you lots of kisses if you do.
The Melanie Collins Blog 
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