The only problem with a small Christmas tree . . .

Is having to take turns sleeping under it.

Bestseller List

A PEACH OF A MURDER came in at #3 in Entertainment Weekly this week. Bill Crider gave me the heads up on this, which came as a pleasant surprise. Bill also mentioned the book on his blog where he said some very nice things.

We have had a bit of an adventure trying to find a copy of this issue. James and I immediately went to Wal-Mart in our hometown to look for the issue. It wasn’t there, so the next day we headed for Fort Worth. We found a copy of Entertainment Weekly at Waldenbooks in Ridgmar Mall, but it wasn’t the right issue. At this time I didn’t know exactly which issue it was in and was afraid it was in the week before. This meant a stop at Half-Price Books. We came out of there with an armful of books, but the past issues of the magazine didn’t have right book list. We finished off the day at Borders. Since that day we made another run at the stores looking for the next issue, but the Nov. 17th issue was still in the stores. My daughter finally found a copy of the right issue, and there my book was on the list. It's a great feeling.

One Sad Dog

Max is really missing his little buddy, Clifford. He gets up with the sun and runs around the yard barking at anything and everything until late at night. James plans on trying to teach him to walk on a leash, so he can go on long walks with him, but I’m not sure if this is going to be possible. We’d never had a dog that totally freaks when a leash is hooked on, but Max does. When he goes to the vet, it’s always an adventure. He’s a fairly big dog and strong. So he doesn’t strangle himself or pull his collar off, we use a halter. At least we can control him with the halter.

Shayna, our oldest daughter thinks we should get another dog. My first response was no. We have had too many pets over the years. Most taken in because they were dropped on us. Living in the country does have some drawbacks. At this time we have one Nigerian Dwarf goat, Max, a small Doberman/Chihuahua mix that lives in the house and hates Max, three old cats, and a parakeet. We did have three goats. As they passed away, we did not replace them. We had four cats and when Ruffles passed away last May, we didn’t replace her. My youngest daughter, Joanna, started out with two parakeets. One morning as she was getting ready for school Ruffles climbed up close to the cage reached in and snapped the bird’s neck. Shocked both Joanna and Ruffles. Ruffles was our mouser. She would catch the field mice that managed to sneak in and kill it so the other cats could play with it acting like they killed it. After Ruffles killed that bird, she gave up mousing. We had to get traps, because the other cats couldn’t catch a mouse if it ran into their mouths. When Ruffles killed the bird, I went right out and bought another bird. When the other bird died suddenly, I went out and bought another bird. And when that bird died suddenly I realized these birds don’t have a long lifespan, so if I waited a little while we’d have no birds. After the first death, the bird moved to my bedroom/office. So, it’s been about three years that I’ve had the one bird. He’s not the friendliest thing, and I worry about him being lonely, but I refuse to go out and buy another bird.

I’ll admit, I’m wavering on getting Max another dog friend. He just looks so blasted lonely. He had this cute trick of grinning with full teeth while dunking his head. He doesn’t grin lately.

R.I.P. Little Dog

Our little miniature Schnauzer passed away today. He became part of our family over eleven years ago. We wanted a dog that would play with our girls who were 7 and 10 at the time. He and our youngest, Joanna, became instant pals. We used him for physical therapy for her. She was born with problems with her left hand. Straighten the hand was impossible, but we tried to get her to use it as much as possible to pull tendons that were too short in the fingers. This is where Clifford came to the rescue. He was the sweetest dog ever, but not really the brightest. It was Joanna’s job to train him to sit. She would hold his head up with her right hand and push down his bottom with her left hand. It took a lot of training to get him to occasionally sit, and it did help Joanna’s hand.

Clifford started having more trouble moving around about three years ago. We thought we were losing him then. While at the pet store buying food, I came across Max, a golden retriever mix, that was a pet rescue dog and he looked like he needed a good home. There is always a worry about adding a new pet to the family but he and Clifford got along perfectly. They would play for hours. Clifford started getting around much better within days, and he was fairly healthy until just a few days ago. Max is really going to miss his little friend, and so are we.