The Blessing of Animals is a collection of short stories written by Lauraine, some fiction, some personal experiences gathered through her years of living and writing. A lover of animals of most kinds, in these stories you will meet, Polly, her first pony, Silver, an old white horse who has trained many kids about riding and handling a horse, dogs who've made people's lives richer and in some instances, saved lives. While readers find animals in all her books, these stories continue the tradition. Award-winning and best selling author Lauraine Snelling began living her dream to be a writer with her first published book for young adult readers, Tragedy on the Toutle, in 1982. She has since continued writing more horse books for young girls, adding historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers to her repertoire. All told, she has over 100 books in print with five Million copies sold. Shown in her contemporary romances and women's fiction, a hallmark of Lauraine's style is writing about real issues of forgiveness, loss, domestic violence, and cancer within a compelling story. Her work has been translated into Norwegian, Danish, and German, and she has won the Romantic Times Career Achievement award for Inspirational Fiction, the Silver Angel Award for An Untamed Land and a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart for Song of Laughter. As a sought after speaker, Lauraine encourages others to find their gifts and live their lives with humor and joy. Her readers clamor for more books more often, and Lauraine would like to comply ... if only her paintbrushes and easel didn't call quite so loudly. Lauraine and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons, and live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a watchdog Basset named Annie. They love to travel, most especially in their forty-foot motor coach, which they affectionately deem "a work in progress".