Terry McNamee

Terry McNamee began drawing dogs at age 2 and horses at age 5, the same age when she began collecting dog and horse figurines. She started writing seriously around age 14 and published her first freelance articles in her early 20s. Today she is a professional artist and writer and avid collector of dog and horse models.

Although McNamee never owned her own horse, she spent several years riding school horses in Pony Club, and her interest in horses, especially Thoroughbred racing, was sparked by seeing Northern Dancer win the Kentucky Derby on television in 1964. That interest continues to this day.

She became involved with purebred dogs as a teenager, and successfully bred and exhibited Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers in Canada for more than 25 years under the registered kennel name Rosewood. She competed with her Tollers in conformation, obedience trials and field tests, and did some training in tracking and agility. She is a life member of the Canadian Kennel Club and a Level Five graduate of the School of Canine Science, where she learned kennel management, grooming, canine anatomy and physiology and how to judge correct structure and movement.

For almost 30 years years, McNamee was a reporter, photographer and editor for various weekly and biweekly community newspapers, writing about a wide diversity of topics. She has won numerous awards for editorials, features and news stories from the Ontario and Canadian Community Newspapers Associations, the Ontario Safety League and the Niagara Health Awards. She also has been a judge for both the OCNA and CCNA awards.

McNamee currently is doing the final edit on her first book, a young persons' novel about wild horses in the mountains of British Columbia. In addition to writing, she also is continuing to do new dog and horse designs for her CafePress store, Rosewood Studio. You are invited to visit her Squidoo pages at http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Retriever-Believer. They are still a work in progress.