I own 13 dogs. No, I’m not a breeder and Yes, they
all live inside my house. In fact, half of them sleep on the bed with us at
night. My days are filled with such exciting and glamorous tasks as cleaning up
vomit, snagging fur tumbleweeds off the floor, and wiping eye-boogies from
sweet, brown eyes. Sound glamorous? Well of course it’s wonderful! But there
are other things too. I find myself negotiating with a plethora of pushy but
adorable dachshunds for space
on the bed or convincing them that it is NOT
okay to eat the delivery guy, explaining to my giant Great Danes that it’s
rude to put your paws on the kitchen counter (or my shoulders, or the doorbell,
or my office window to peek in at me when you want to come in the house), and
“convincing” my border collie mixes that they need to stay in the yard, rather
than traveling 2 miles through the woods to the river where life is oh so much
more interesting.
Intrigued? Confused? Disgusted?
All of the above? #:0)
No worries, I understand that most people wouldn’t
choose to be the fur-free mom to 13 assorted sized, temperament-varied fur
babies. But for those of you who think a turtle in an aquarium constitutes a
full time job, let me try to explain.
First, my husband and I LOVE dogs. I know this probably
comes as quite a shock to you but we do. We rescue dogs who have had a rough
start or which are heading for an even rougher end and give them loving,
comfortable forever homes. The hard part for us isn’t deciding to adopt a new
fur baby, it’s NOT taking in every one we see!
Second, other than our children, we don’t spend
money on anything else. We don’t vacation because we love our little hobby farm
and menagerie so much we don’t feel the need to travel somewhere else for fun.
We don’t buy cars or jewelry or any of the other stuff people tend to spend
their money on. We buy dog food, collar bling, and vet care. #:0)
Third, our dogs are a hobby, a constant source of
entertainment, and a source of never-ending love.
Fourth, as a writer, I’m all about watching,
listening and learning. Believe it or not, I learn a lot about people from
watching my dogs. Dogs have the whole “interacting in a society” thing down at
its most basic level. My dogs have their own pack (literally) and I’m the alpha
(hubby is my beta #:0). The dynamics of the pack are fascinating and the dogs
are not happy or comfortable until they understand where they fit in the
hierarchy. So our biggest challenge from day to day is keeping everybody
hole-free until the hierarchy is ironed out and set in stone. The only position
that never changes when we add a new dog is the alpha. Me. That’s a necessity
because somebody always has to be in charge. And so far nobody’s been willing
to fight me for the top spot. (My husband considered it, briefly, once. But I
smacked him down with a double-barreled eye glare and he immediately fell
whimpering to the floor belly up.) LOL
Our days are busy. Simple things like getting a
delivery (see above) or having repairs done around the home can be exciting
affairs. Imagine driving down a driveway and seeing 13 dogs flying toward you. My
dogs are very sweet, but there’s that pack mentality thing that can bite any
visitor to our house on the butt (literally). Dogs in a pack get excited and
will do things they normally wouldn’t do. So we always try to impress on our
visitors to let us know when they’re coming so we can get the dogs inside first.
Fortunately most of our delivery guys are savvy. Our
UPS guy brings cookies and keeps track of the pack. He’ll even ask when he
doesn’t see one of the dogs for a while. He’s a great guy. Then there’s the
brain-cell-challenged FedEx guy who climbs right out of the truck when the dogs
are out, then panics, and runs from them. Yeesh! You might as well paint
yourself with gravy and yell, I’m tender and yummy, come and get me.
So our lives are noisy, messy, and very busy. Some
weeks we spend most of our time at the vet and others we spend filling in holes
in the yard or cleaning up mud on the carpet. It’s challenging and unkempt and
wonderful. And I can’t imagine living any other way.
If you’d like to see what my life is like, check out
this little video, Spending Time
With Wally (the doxie in my bio picture).
Thanks for letting me stop by and blather on!
Happy Reading everybody!
Yesterday’s News: Antiques can be a dangerous business. Especially when you’re dealing with a
desperate politician, a sexy ex-cop, and a couple of “spirited” companions.
Anna Yesterday owns Yesterday’s Antiques in small town USA.
When she finds an old newspaper clipping lining the drawer of an antique
dresser, she realizes she’s never heard the ugly story of rape and suicide
detailed on the yellowed newsprint. So she starts to dig, and her sleuthing
exposes an ugly cover-up that casts the residents of Crocker, Indiana into
danger and intrigue, and leaves them with a corpse.
Threads of Yesterday: A deadly secret is tangled up in Yesterday’s Threads, and
Anna is racing the clock to get it unraveled.
In 1859, Elisabeth Margaret Nelson traveled to Crocker,
Indiana to meet her new husband and start a new life. Her family never saw her
again. The story of her death and a heartbroken husband who grieves his entire
life is a sad tale for sure. But is it true?
When Anna Yesterday receives some vintage dresses from the
local museum, she’s excited about highlighting them at Crocker’s annual Apple
Blossom Festival. But someone wants the dresses back, and they’ll apparently
stop at nothing to get them—leaving a trail of murder and destruction in their
wake.
As Anna and Pratt work to uncover the deadly intrigue behind
the vintage dresses, interference of another kind is working its way to the
surface. All too soon, Anna and Pratt find themselves neck deep in trouble from
more than one dimension—and wondering which will get them first!
BIO
Award winning author
of more than 40 works of fiction, Sam Cheever mixes in a little fun, a little adventure, and a
little real-life spice to create her sexy fantasy, mystery and romantic
suspense stories. In her real life, Sam lives on a
hobby farm in Indiana with 13 dogs, 2 horses, and one husband. She writes books
she likes to read and reads books she wishes she’d written. Her books are fast
paced and fun loving. Not one of them will solve a single world problem, but
you definitely won’t be bored while reading them!
To
find out more about Sam and her work, please pay her a visit at any one of the
following online hot spots:
