All That Glitters

By Donna Ball

Raine Stockton looks back on how she first got Cisco in the Raine Stockton Dog MNystery Christmas short.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donna Ball
• Release date: Dec 10, 2012

Donna Ball

Donna Ball has written over a dozen works of commercial fiction under pseudonyms that include Rebecca Flanders, Donna Carlisle, Leigh Bristol, Taylor Brady, and Donna Boyd.She is known for her work in women’s fiction and suspense, as well as supernatural fantasy and adventure. Her novels have been translated into well over a dozen languages and have been published in virtually every country in the world. She has appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and has been featured in such publications as the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and even T.V. Guide. She is the holder of the Storytelling World award, 2001, the Georgia Author of the Year Award, 2000, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Awards for consecutive years 1991-1996, the Georgia Romance Writer’s Maggie Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times, among others."You might not know my name," Donna says, "but chances are, you've read one of my books. If you've ever been stuck at an airport, or looking for something to read at the beach, mine was probably the book you pulled off the rack."Her most recent titles are the Ladybug Farm series: A YEAR ON LADYBUG FARM (March 2009) and AT HOME ON LADYBUG FARM (October 2009) and LOVE LETTERS FROM LADYBUG FARM (October 2010) and KEYS TO THE CASTLE (January 2011), all from Berkley Books. She is also known for the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery series--SMOKY MOUNTAIN TRACKS, RAPID FIRE and GUNSHY--and, under the pseudonym Donna Boyd, THE PASSION and THE PROMISE. All are now in paperback in bookstores everywhere.

Book preview

ALL THAT GLITTERS

A Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Christmas Short

By Donna Ball

Copyright 2012 by Donna Ball, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.

www.donnaball.net

Published by Blue Merle Publishing

Drawer H

Mountain City, Georgia 30562

www.bluemerlepublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All places, characters, events and organizations mentioned in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously.

Cover art www.bigstock.com

There are people, I know, who say dogs don’t understand Christmas. These people clearly have never had dogs. These same people say that dogs have little, if any, long term memory and no ability to conceptualize or categorize events. I would very much like those people to explain to me how a field-champion golden retriever can sit by his handler’s side and watch four different birds be shot down and fall in four different places in a marsh six hundred yards away, and then, on command, go directly to each bird and return it to the handler—in the precise order that it fell. And then they can explain why my golden retriever, upon seeing a certain green felt wreath wrapped in plaid ribbon come out of its box for the first time every year, automatically sits and starts licking his chops in anticipation.

The Dog Bone Wreath is a Christmas tradition that has gone on as long as I have owned dogs. Every year on December fifteenth the wreath comes out and is decorated with colorful frosted bone-shaped dog biscuits and hung in a prominent place in the training room. Each day until Christmas, the dogs get a bone from the wreath, like a doggie Advent calendar. Since the wreath is only up ten days a year, and since a year is a really, really long time for a dog, you’d think they would forget in between Christmases. But they never do.

Dogs might not understand the concept of Christmas, but they have never misunderstood the concept of treats.

This year my young friend Melanie—age ten going on thirty—was helping me decorate the kennel for the Dog Daze annual Christmas party. Her puppy, Pepper, was in the back having a shampoo and blow-out for the big event, and the rest of dogs were out in the play yard with one of the kennel staff. But Cisco refused to be distracted from the excitement he could literally smell on the air. He was Cisco, after all, and tracking was his specialty.

Melanie laughed when the Dog Bone Wreath went up on its hook and Cisco, with the instincts of a born chow-hound, looked up from the cardboard wrapping paper tube he was chewing, spotted the wreath without hesitation, galloped across the room and skidded to a perfect sit beneath it. Even I couldn’t prevent a grin and a respectful round of applause.

Can he have a biscuit now, Raine? Melanie asked. This is day one, right? I think he should have a biscuit now.

It had taken the two of us half an hour to tie the dozens of dog biscuits to the wreath with decorative plaid bows, and we had enjoyed the display for less than a minute, but what kind of Scrooge would I be to say no? I untied a treat and gave Melanie the privilege of dispensing it.

Come on, I said, picking up the box of Christmas ornaments. Everyone is going to be here at two, and we’ve got to finish decorating the dog tree. Grab that box of Christmas stockings too, will you?

Melanie plopped her Santa’s Helper elf hat back atop her unruly dark curls, gave me a snappy salute, and picked up the box of miniature felt stockings that we would be stuffing with dog biscuits as party favors. Cisco made a quick detour to grab his half-chewed cardboard wrapping paper tube, and dashed after us.

In a small town like our Smoky Mountain community of Hansonville, North Carolina, December is filled with parties, tree-lightings, pageants and concerts. I’m happy to say that the Dog Daze Christmas party is among the most prestigious of all the community events—at least with the dog crowd. It had started out as a way for my business partner, Maude, and me to thank our clients for their patronage throughout the year, but had grown to include just about everyone in town with a dog. We had obedience and agility demonstrations, dog games and human games; cookies, cupcakes and punch for the humans and dog biscuits and fresh water for the canines. Everyone brought a wrapped dog toy for the gift exchange, and an item from the local shelter’s wish list which we collected in a big basket by the door and delivered to the