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:
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