Let Freedom Ring!!!

With Freedom Comes Responsibility

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Hello Friends and Family,

For those in the United States, I hope that your Independence Day celebrations were safe and fun. For those enjoying summer in the rest of the world, I hope the weather has been comfortable and not too hot.

To get away and celebrate the holiday, we went to Lake Amador and stayed in our RV at the Smith family lake house. It was a fabulous weekend with Paige, and Eddie, and Kris and Mike, and of course Mama Smith. We hope to spend far more time with them in the coming years.

My birthday was the 13th, and I celebrated all weekend long. First, a girls night dinner at Camp 4 Wine Cafe on Friday night, then dinner with the hubs on Saturday night at Concetta, followed up by a bbq on Sunday.

It’s been a busy crazy month already and we are only halfway through, so I thought I’d send a post full of pretty pictures of puppies. Don’t worry the next post will be all about books. I’ve got a Freebie book offer, as well as some exciting promotions coming your way. So stay tuned!

ANIMAL ANTICS:

Rubicon:

Meet Rubicon, (Rubi for short) our newest edition to the Baca Zoo. We’ve continued in the tradition of naming the puppies after Jeep models. She’s a now 10-week old brindle pug and has brightened our home. Everyone who has spent time with her has fallen in love. Friends, and family and even the entire staff at the Vet had to come to get a smooch from her.

While pugs are not usually water dogs, she’s handled being in the pool, learned to swim and even rafted at the lake. She’s holding her own with the five cats at the moment, though they are showing some signs of wearing down and showing more interest in her. She’s a little too rambunctious for them still.

Shadow: 

Shadow came to us six months after we had adopted Scrambler. Just like him, Shadow wasn’t planned. I always joked that they were “accidental adoptions” because they just came into our lives when we hadn’t expected, and settled in as if they’d always belonged.

While driving around town running errands my husband found her roaming down the street, not a care in the world, following a teenage girl. Following people was truly her trademark.

Once the girl told him it wasn’t her dog, he put her in the truck and took her to the vet to see about finding her family. She had no collar or tags, at the vet we learned she had no chip. And after two weeks of ads in the newspaper saying found dog, no one came for her.

By then she had become best friends with Scrambler and they were like two peas in a pod, and fit into our home and our lives seamlessly. At the time I really didn’t think that calling her Hemorrhoid was an appropriate name for a puppy. I came to regret that decision over time, as it would have fit her personality even more than Shadow did.

Whenever we traveled on land, they were almost always with us. Camping, Jeeping, when we went to Mexico for Thanksgiving the first time in the camper.

This was their first time in the snow and my first trip to Yosemite. We had a fabulous day, tramping in the snow, watching them sink as they ran through it, the cold not affecting them in the least.

She came into our lives six months after Scrambler and fourteen years later, she crossed the rainbow bridge six months after we lost Scrambler. While our home and our hearts were filled for those years with their loving presence, their loss is only more profound as the house is so empty without them.

My recommended reads this month are:

• ALYSSA DAY – Atlantis Rising (Warriors of Poseidon, Book 1) – https://amzn.to/2s47RB5
• CHRISTY CRAIG – Shut Up and Kiss Me – https://amzn.to/2VnAAOO
• JULIE COHEN – Louis & Louise – https://amzn.to/2LJe4vr
• KAY HOOPER – If There Be Dragons: A Novel – https://amzn.to/2LKt8bV