This is my favorite part of the story.  Yes, Doris is a real person, she was my Grandma.  She was born Doris Marie Freemore in Tomah Wisconsin where she lived for most of her life.  The story of Doris and Danny is not a true story, but many parts of the story came from things my Grandma used to tell me.  Often she told me stories of her childhood while she cut up old rags to make rag rugs.  I loved the colorful balls of rags and really enjoyed using this image in the Doris Free books.  When I was a little girl I sat on the rag balls, they were twice the size of a bowling ball!

There really was a cow named buttercup and a stray dog did chew off the tip of her tail!  Rain-in-the-face and Smokey were real horses in my family's history.  Can you guess what other things in the story were part of the real Doris' life?

Doris Marie Puttkammer-Freemore with Cara Marie Brookins   --   2003