Just the other day I was writing some notes for the next installment of the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. I thought about the characters, and I wondered if I should have made them human instead of talking anthropomorphic animals. Then I realized that wouldn’t have worked, because that’s just not how I was raised. I was raised by talking animals.

No, I don’t mean out in the woods like the supposedly feral Romulus and Remus. I’m referring to the talking animals from my favorite childhood TV shows. Looking back, there were more than I realized. The first one that came to mind was a little show called “Zoobilee Zoo”, which featured people dressed as animals. It was hosted by Ben Vereen and featured animals who faced the same challenges as young children, which taught the show’s young audience how to deal with making friends, being creative, learning to cooperate, etc. It aired during the late 1980’s and I freak’n loved it. I can still hear the theme song in my head.

There was also a little cartoon known as “Mapletown”. This was a Japanese cartoon but there was an English-dubbed version that aired in North America in the late 1980’s. The main characters were Patty Rabbit and Bobby Bear and their families and neighbors who lived in a town filled with talking animals called Mapletown. There were also collectible figurines (yes, I was one of the kids who had a few). If you can remember classic Nickelodeon, you may recall an animated series called “The Adventures of the Little Koala”. This was another Japanese cartoon (man, I was into anime before I knew what it was!) which featured anthropomorphic talking animals.

It’s funny how certain things from your childhood carry over into your adulthood. A love of talking animals helped inspire me to write Our Lady, and many of the unpublished Woolaston Entertainment books that came before it. My greatest takeaway from all of those shows was creativity. I’m thankful I grew up with a wide imagination and I believe those shows are part of the reason. You probably have something from your childhood that stayed with you after you became an adult. Some of these things can be useful and you shouldn’t necessarily shy away from them. You never know where they might lead you.

And if you get a chance check out “Zoobilee Zoo” on YouTube. That show was an absolute banger.