Javelina

Image (C) Copyright Lisa Thompson

It was a great coincidence that while I was writing The Devil's Highway, my sister sent these photos to me. She had just returned from an Arizona vacation and the hotel she was staying had nightly visitors - Javelinas. I didn't know much about these apparently smelly beasts, but I thought that a Javelina would be a great way to introduce the appearance of the Chupacabra. In the novel the real animal serves as something of a 'red herring' by initially startling our protagonists as they sleep. Once they realize that it is not a threat, they let their guard down and then something truly frightening happens (at least more frightening than the appearance of a bad-tempered, foul smelling, naturally aggressive wild animal).