One of Nellie’s jobs is to protect my red writing chair when I’m not in it. Few people understand how important a chair can be to an author. I bought this chair more than 20 years ago. It’s not a high-quality chair, and it was never intended to be the chair I wrote 10 books sitting in. It just sort of happened when I started writing in the room that looks out over the mountains. Over the years, much of the low-quality leather has worn all the way through, and I have replaced some of it with sheets of chair-repair leather.

Eventually, I bought a new high-quality red writing chair that now lives in my writing room and moved this original red writing chair outside to the front porch, where I write in the summer. So parts of every future book I write will originate while I’m sitting in this chair—even if I have to put another layer of leather on it and hold everything together with red duct tape.

A couple of years ago, someone who weighed roughly 400 pounds sat in my chair, and the only thing I could think of was how to politely ask that person to sit elsewhere. Yes the chair is ugly and worn out, but it has molded itself to the shape of my body. So I appreciate Nellie’s efforts. The second I get out of the chair, she jumps in with her light, 63-pound body to protect it until I return. It’s good when dogs have jobs.