Having lived in Dubai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Britain and the United States before she was out of her teens, it took writer Hsin-Yi Cohen a long time to feel settled enough to be the dog owner she had always longed to be.
'Children adapt. I learned to sing the Star-Spangled Banner when we lived in New Jersey for a year and by the time we went back to Taiwan for my fourth grade, my Chinese was completely gone - but we were only there for a year and I don't remember much about it,' says Taipei-born Cohen, 35. 'Despite having moved to different places, I consider myself Taiwanese.'
Her stepfather, who raised her, had an insurance business based in the Middle East. He was used to moving around.
'I just took it for granted when I was a child that we moved and lived in lots of different places and I was always changing schools,' says Cohen. 'We settled in the UAE when I was 11 years old, so that's ... where I spent most of my childhood.'
She went on to complete a degree in biology and earn a master's in social anthropology, both at Oxford University, Britain, where she met her husband, Paul, a medical doctor.
Twelve years ago, she returned to Taiwan to get married. During their wedding, Cohen says, street dogs walked alongside her and Paul as they made their way to the ceremony. They took it as a sign but it wasn't until years later, when they were settled in Auckland, New Zealand - where, after having risen through the ranks in advertising, Cohen had found a job working for Oxford University Press - that she realised her childhood dream. The couple acquired a dog; a Great Dane they named Honey (pictured with Cohen).