So with Pete my eyes were opened, as was my heart,' Maria recounts. He was on the cover of The New Yorker-that was something that I still like to boast about. And he was very funny-we had a lot of funny times, and I drew him many times. It became this love story that I never would have dreamt in a million years. He was this extraordinary, kind, patient, loving, consoling, new person in my life, and we became inseparable.

'I became the person who took care of him. Maria looked at him as a cartoon character and eventually started falling in love with the pooch. Pete was a funny looking dog who would jump around on all four feet. How do you find yourself one minute saying no, and the next minute you’re bringing a dog home? Which is exactly what happened.' The dog she brought home was a small scruffy mutt named Pete. Maria's outlook on dogs eventually changed, as she states, 'When my husband, Tibor, got sick with terminal cancer years ago, and someone suggested a dog-for the kids-I was just like, “No way, that’s not going to happen.” But somehow, that idea became a possibility. Her fear of the canines became profoundly ingrained, and while growing up, Maria was very afraid of the animals. Maria's parents and friends warned her about the dogs. The local stories stated that townspeople who did not like Jews had trained the dogs to be vicious towards the people. In an interview with New Yorker Magazine, Maria said about her book Beloved Dogs, 'Pete is why this book exists in the first place-he’s what the story’s about, even if he died years ago.'Īs a child, Maria went to Belarus where she encountered many unfriendly dogs. However, her entire career would never have happened if not for a pooch named Pete. Every book and drawing she ever undertook was somehow inspired by the canine. Within the colorfully illustrated book, she shares all of the beloved dogs of her life. To date, her picture book, Beloved Dogs is proving to be a genuine best seller. She has been publishing a variety of children's books since 1985. Maria Kalman is an Israeli-born American illustrator, writer, artist, and designer.

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