Patricia Carte became an experienced publishing professional while working at McGraw-Hill in New York City for eighteen years. After leaving McGraw-Hill and the New York City area, Patricia decided to begin pursuing some of the personal and professional goals she’d been thinking about for years. She earned her Masters degree in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, taught college business writing, and most recently compiled and edited the letters in this book.

She now lives just miles away from Lake George in the town of Fort Ann with her husband, Lindsay, and her two cats, Maggie and Coco. It was her cats who were the inspiration for this book. “Until I experienced it first hand, I’d never really realized or appreciated the emotional impact pets have on their people or just how strong that emotional connection can be.”

What she discovered when she began talking to prospective contributors about writing letters for this book was that “People get very emotional, very quickly when they talk about their pets.” She found that “We have no problem wearing our hearts on our sleeves when it comes to them.”

“Reading the letters as they were submitted gave me the chills,” said Patti. “Yes, they’re about the unconditional love our pets give us and we give them, but it’s also about the lessons they teach us, how they give us inspiration and motivation to learn life’s lessons in a kind and gentle way.”

Spurred on by the great response to her request for letters for this book, Patti says she's planning to publish another pet letter book. She also has ideas for other "letter" books and plans to continue this type of publishing endeavors as long as her ideas continue to generate writers' and readers' interest.