Leaving Abby

Today I had to take my dog to stay in a kennel for the first time so we can go to a wedding.  Festivities are planned for two days and nights.  Dogs are not invited.😯

Since Abby hadn't been away from us and she has a heart condition, not to mention separation anxiety (imagined), I was worried.

On the positive side, Holly's Bed and Biscuit specializes in my dog's breed---Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.  They offer individual care only with others of the same breed.  Not that we're as snobby as that sounds, but few Cavs can play with other breeds due to the Cavs' lack of aggressiveness.  These dogs eat out of each other's bowls, turn reclusive when threatened by other breeds, and won't fight.  You can see how that might be a problem next door to an aggressive breed dog.

Abby began shaking terribly when we took her into the reception room.  However, just then another car pulled up with another Cav and Abby was fascinated.  I checked with the dog's owner to see if I could let Abby visit with her pup.  The lady took one look at Abby and said her dog would love it.  They were so happy to greet each other!

Now I'm concerned Abby will get used to being a dog and not want to come home with us. Our house is very boring with nobody her same size to play with.  I never thought I would be concerned with the psychological welfare of a dog.  But, alas, not to worry...Holly's B&B even washes the dog and trims its nails before we pick her up, for a very nominal fee.

They offer a spa treatment, but I haven't succumbed.  I think I should go to a spa first before I send my dog to one.

Losing David by Cheryl Dale--Review by Melody Scott

                                  LOSING DAVID (Review by Melody Scott

By Cheryl Dale

Losing David was an extraordinary story about a man, an actor, who has been coached and insinuated into the Harmony family in order to avoid misappropriation of inheritance funds by the bad guy (Theodore Pack)..

            There were times that David was really David, then he turned into the actor, Nick Downing, based only upon who he said he was.  It was hard for me to believe he was at first David, then Nick, but the change was so convincing I started questioning how that switch could be, even though I read the true story from the beginning.

            Nick/David is a fun character who teases everybody in the story and chameleon-like, becomes hateful and rude then charming and cute, based on how he needed to manipulate the people he was hired to convince of David’s reality.

            Until the very ending I had a question in my mind, which was eventually straightened up and made the story click together.

            The foil in the story, Megan Mulrennon, charmed into loving Nick whether he claimed that day to be David or himself, was torn through the entire story about her part in his life. She realizes, to her the men are one in the same while everybody else knows he/they are lying about one or the other. After being angry at the imposter(s) for leading her on, Megan had to find enough positive things about them both that it didn’t matter who the changling was. She more or less looked for a good reason to believe in them both.

            It’s an unusual and pretty exciting story, especially for a romance, but you can identify with all of the characters as they show their stripes one by one.

My review of Mystery In Marietta by Deborah Malone

                                                                  MURDER IN MARIETTA

    Deborah Malone

            Protagonist Trixie Montgomery is a reporter for Georgia By The Way Magazine, whose editor, Harv has assigned her to investigate mysterious, unexplainable occurrences involving theft, smoke odor, and ghosts reported to the police from the Marietta History Museum personnel and guests.

            Trixie isn’t real happy about being chosen to be a ghost catcher, but the fact is she needs a paycheck and she needs her colorful dreams to alleviate, so she agrees to spend one night in the museum with her best friend, DeeDee, and make up something for the boss.

            However, the museum curator, Doc, finds a dead body while the women are in the building. So the curator, Trixie and DeeDee all become suspects to the murder of Jacob, who is the president of the board of directors/

            Nana, Trixie’s great Aunt brings her best friend, Dora to see the museum when Dora happens to break her hip falling down and is shipped to the hospital.  Nana needs intravenous southern fried greasy chicken fixes between supporting Dora and helping Trixie and DeeDee find the correct culprit and have them recognized as innocent.

            Ms. Monroe has done a lovely job of inserting passages of Marietta building history and relating them to the present. 

It’s a classic cozy/mystery that leaves nothing out—murder, red herring suspects, frightening experiences that seem to have no explanation, period balls, complete with the fun of old ladies wrestling with hoop skirts. Sprinkled throughout the story are traditional southern homilies such as “tick on a hound dog,” “quicker than a southern girl could say ‘well bless her heart,’” etc.

Typically, Murder In Marietta is a squeaky clean novel of a romp in old parts of Georgia. If you want a cozy with a mystery, clean fun, outrageous characters with a little history thrown in, this is it.