The first few months of 2013 were a trying time for me. Sure, I had a job and my body was in fairly good health, but there was still the crushing, deep-seated loneliness that I lean towards without any outside boosts to my mood.

I had been rejected by the first woman I loved, deceived and manipulated by the second, and abandoned by the third. When my health and money went away, what I still had was the fantasy that maybe some day I could get a mate anyway.

This wasn't my first time drawing a blue humanoid canid, but this pattern is still the one that appeals to me most strongly on a basic and instinctive level.

The woman I wound up finding in the month that followed was much better in every way than what I dared to imagine for myself.