The Dog House Inn (Beaver Brook Cozy Mystery Short Story)

By Monika Schmitt

Welcome to Beaver Brook a small town nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Meet Loren Chase a teenager working at The Dog House Inn. A boarding, training and spa resort for dogs. Read on to meet Loren’s friends Diane, Daniel, and Jack. As they help the police of this small town to solve a murder...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387197460

Book preview

The Dog House Inn (Beaver Brook Cozy Mystery Short Story)

The Dog House Inn (Beaver Brook Cozy Mystery Short Story)

by Monika Schmitt

Copyright 2017 by Monika Schmitt

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2017

ISBN:978-1-387-19746-0

LuLu Press, Inc.

3101 Hillsborough St.

Raleigh, NC 27607

http//www.lulu.com

Introduction:

Welcome to Beaver Brook a small town nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Meet Loren Chase a teenager working at The Dog House Inn. A boarding, training and spa resort for dogs. Read on to meet Loren’s friends Diane, Daniel, and Jack. As they help the police of this small town to solve a murder...

Chapter 1

Hi! My name is Loren Chase. I am a 16-year-old teenager with long brown hair with a natural curl and hazel eyes. I live in a Beaver Brook, Pennsylvania. It is a small town in the hills about an hour west of the ski resorts in the Pocono Mountains. I work part time at The Dog House Inn a grooming, pet boarding, and dog-training place, which happens to be my families business. We always enjoyed dogs since I was little girl. The Dog House Inn actually looks like a huge doghouse. It is a two-story doghouse with dark brown logs and a green roof with a deck that wraps around the entire doghouse. It has a huge big door in the front of it. It does have plenty of windows, with shutters shaped like big bones biscuits. My mom likes to have plenty of sunlight. She thinks the light brightens up the place. My mom thinks its eye catching and cute, from what I hear from the weekenders and tourists driving through they seem to think so too. Many of them have dogs, which they bring up with them for the weekends and holiday visits. It is located right off of Route 6 just outside of town. A scenic area surrounded by mountains, and a brook that runs along the main road right into town. The brook runs along and becomes the Beaver Brook Falls, and later on becomes the Beaver River. The main street is only 3 miles long with one traffic light. The town has many small businesses along both sides of the street, which they decorate according to the time of year. There is also a well-known Bed and Breakfast in middle of town, owned by Ben and Sarah Templeton called the Beaver Brook Bed and Breakfast. It is very quaint town. My favorite time of year is Christmas because there is a huge pine tree in the middle of the town, which they celebrate the start of the season with a lighting ceremony and all the shops decorated with Christmas lights and little Christmas scenes in the store shop windows. The shops are open and they give out free hot cocoa and coffee along with cookies for all the tourists and townspeople that evening during the tree lighting ceremony. I love to walk around with my friends and look into all the shops during the Christmas season. The tree lighting ceremony takes place the first Saturday of December.

Right now, we are in the summer season and the town puts out small US flags attached to the lampposts along the sidewalk on both sides of the street. There are several planters hanging along the sidewalks also decorated with red, white, and blue ribbons. The shop windows also have Independence Day decorations in the windows. The Independence Day parade will be tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Many townspeople gather along the street to watch the parade and any tourists we have also enjoy the festivities. The town also puts on a great fireworks show at dusk on the high school grounds. Therefore, my friends and I get together and enjoy all the festivities. My friends and I usually get together the night before and go out to the movies at the Old Movie Theater right in the center of town across from the Town Hall, but tonight we feel like going roller skating. The roller skating rink is just outside of town going north towards Hickory.

My dad advertises the business all the time, which is a big draw and it, helps that it is the only grooming, spa, and training facility for dogs in the entire area. Many city folks from New York City and Philadelphia have vacation homes in the area as well. I think they like this area because of the scenic mountains and the fact that the ski resorts are not that far away. The visitors come up here to relax and enjoy themselves and they like to treat there dogs to our spa facility. Patricia (everyone calls her Pat) and Sandy are the groomers and trainers and they are busy. I help them out when I can, but I am usually at the front desk making appointments or cleaning up the facility. It sits on 40 acres of wooded land. My house that I grew up in is in the back of the Dog House Inn it is a white cape cod with maroon shutters. It is a cute house with nice landscaping. My dad had put in small bushes and two Japanese maples on either side. There is a huge willow tree in the front yard not far from the road and an oak tree on the other side. My dad is also a part time realtor on the side. He enjoys the grooming business but I think he just wants to get away from all the noisy dogs for a while. That is why he works at Beaver Brook Real Estate. He does pretty well in the business too. Therefore, my mom and dad along with Pat and Sandy run the dog business. I help part time when I am not busy with school.

I am a sophomore at Beaver Brook High School along with my best friend Diane Swift we attend school and hang out together along with our boyfriends Daniel and Jack and other friends of ours. Diane and I have been best friends since we were in first grade. Diane has long blonde hair and light blue eyes. Jack is my boyfriend and he has short blonde hair with blue eyes. Daniel is Diane’s boyfriend and he has short dark brown hair with dark brown eyes. Both of them are tall teenagers about six foot. Diane and I are both petite around five three. Diane works at The Pet Shoppe on the other side of town. She loves animals as much as I do. Daniel works at a garden center down the road from the Dog House Inn. Jack works at the Exxon Gas Station, which is down the street toward Beaver Brook. I have an older brother his name is Michael one of two police officers of Beaver Brook. The police station is very small and is located in the middle of town in the back of the Town Hall building. His partner’s name is Anthony. Anthony just happens to be Diane’s cousin.