Sasha McKnasha

Josephine Evans is my pen name, my real name is Claire Petett. I am married to Sean and we have two wonderful boys, Luke and Benjamin. The fifth member of our family is my beloved dog, Sasha, who is the inspiration for the story Sasha McKnasha.

We were Sasha's third home when we got her at 8 months of age. I have often wondered what she had done to become no longer wanted, we definitely only had half the story when we got her, our angelic-looking dog got up to a lot of the things I have included in the story.

The second half of the story is strongly influenced by my experience of working as a Wheelchair Therapist for the last 10 years. One particular day I was in a posture assessment clinic when a client came in driving her powered wheelchair along with her helper dog. It was wonderful to see the close bond they had, this prompted me to put pen to paper and finally write Sasha McKnasha. I wanted to write about empowerment, people can be so quick to point out what they perceive as someone's flaw or failure, however, given the right opportunities I strongly believe such flaws can become someone's strength or talent.

I also wanted to write about belonging, we all need to belong. For me going to boarding school at the age of 9 was quite traumatic, for a long time I really felt like I didn't fit in and this made me very homesick for my family. I have often wondered if this is how it could have been for Sasha forced away from her family. Things changed for me however when I got to high school when I made two very good friends, I really started to enjoy school. As for Sasha, she is truly part of our family and definitely belongs.

I hope you enjoy Sasha McKnasha. For those of you who have dyslexia, we have developed a dyslexia friendly version of this story, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Warmest regards,
Claire