Wet Nose Wednesday: Little Big Nugget

June 10, 2026

Image: hmuraco

My latest middle grade book Strays released June 2, 2026. This book comes from a truly personal place, and now I want to share from where.

Today’s Wet Nose Wednesday features a little dog I've come to know as Nugget.

Toward the end of June 2023, I noticed a little dog hanging out in our neighborhood. He was porch surfing - our house plus a couple of houses oneither side of us. It was HOT that time of year in South Texas, like, triple-digits hot. So we kept a bowl of water on our porch for him, and some cat food as well, just in case. We were sure he was a dump dog - unfortunately, San Antonio is notorious for that. But even though we lived in the ‘burbs, cars screamed through our neighborhood all the time, and we knew it just wasn’t safe for him to be out there.

The dog who would be known as Nugget porch surfing.

We spent the next week or so trying to catch him, to no avail. Then July 4th came. July 4th in Texas is like the wild-wild west. Non-stop fireworks, gunfire, all of it. The pup disappeared for a few days after that, and we assumed he’d left the neighborhood to take his chances elsewhere or possibly worse.

But a few days later, he turnedback up. This time, we knew we had to catch him and get him somewhere safe. The hiccup: we had a VERY strict lease with an off-the-rails rental company. If we

brought this dog into our home, it would be grounds for immediate eviction. We decided to roll the dice and give it a day, maybe two. Surely there would be a solution by then.

One hot night, I saw him outside again. So I brought some food with me, and even though I’m disabled, I got down on the driveway and stretched out so he wouldn’t be afraid. After about an hour of coaxing, he cautiously took the food. As he ate, I tried to reach out to pet him. He was skittish at first, but also hungry. He ignored my outstretched hand so he could just eat. As soon as my hand touched his head, he left the plate of food and leaned into me. This pup was hungry for food, but starving for love.

Moments after rescuing Nugget.

We brought him into the house to bathe him, and as we did, he literally cried silent, grateful tears. I’ve never seen anything like it. We said he looked like a little chicken nugget, so we started calling him Nugget. The next day we took him in to scan for a chip - there was none. We began calling every shelter, humane society, and agency we could. No one would take him.

We posted on socials, on NextDoor. We called the city asking for guidance. They told us if we couldn’t keep him, just to toss him back on the street to take his chances. We would rather take ours and hang on to him while finding a solution. But days passed and things were getting desperate. Then, a high school friend reached out. There was something about Nugget she couldn’t stop thinking about. She wanted him. But she was in California, and we were in Texas and time was 1000% of the essence. It was touch and go for a while. But once she found a transport service whose mission it is to bring rescue dogs to their forever home, we got it arranged. A week later, Nugget had landed in his beautiful forever home.

While Strays is a middle grade fiction story, its roots come from a real experience of a little stray dog who changed my heart forever. And my hope is that Campbell and Tate can do something similar for readers coming to Strays.