Blog + Dog, Books, Fiction

Story Time

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Reading When You Love A Dog by M.H. Clark with Tess and the puppies! | Shirt | Glasses |Pants |

This may come as a shock to you, but I read a lot. I think story time is important for everyone, including puppies.

They’re six weeks old today. They love playing outside, eating all the food, gnawing on plants, pooping everywhere, and taking naps. I can’t wait for them to learn how to climb stairs. Carrying thirteen heavy, growing puppies up and down the stairs four plus times a day is exhausting. Although, I’m going to have a great butt when this is all said and done. They have loved running around Amanda’s – read this post if you don’t know what I’m talking about – backyard and laying in the sun. Today, they spent nine hours outside; 70° couldn’t be better for them. They’ve also found a love of playing in water. When it gets warmer, we’re planning on filling the kiddy pool, the one they were born in, for them to splash around. 

Whenever I sit down, all thirteen fuzz-butts come running and volley for a place in my lap. It’s heaven. They always sit so cute, I thought it would be a great time to read them a book, or, at least, pose with a book for a super cute picture. It did not go quite so smoothly. They were too excited about literally anything else to crawl in my lap. We’ll try again another time, but we did get some cute photos and a lot of bloopers. 

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Reading with as many puppies as I could wrangle.

I bought When You Love A Dog by M.H. Clark from a store here in Houston back in February before the puppies and Tess arrived on the scene. A week later, my house had fifteen dogs instead of the one. When you love a dog, you take on a lot of responsibility and tasks you probably wouldn’t otherwise, like not sleeping, cleaning poop, doing laundry at 4:00 am, bottle feeding every two hours, spending thousands on emergency vet runs, moving in with your best friend so the puppies can be safe and happy, making stinky puppy food at 1:30/5:30 am, and so many more things. I took on Tess and the circus because I love Beau with my entire heart. Tess needed someone to love her and help her through this time, and that person was me. I knew it the moment I stood in the field coaxing her into my arms. I’m exhausted, broke, homeless (not really, but it kind of feels that way), and I couldn’t be happier. Loving dogs has always been the best part of my life. Now I can love thirteen puppies and help them find their furever homes so other people can love a dog too. 

When You Love A Dog is a cute little book perfect for any dog owner. I can’t wait to decorate one of the rooms in my home with pictures of all the puppies, Tess, and Beau and fill that room with sweet little books like these. “When you love a dog, someone waits for you, with a true and joyful heart.” It couldn’t be truer. My life is hectic and exhausting, but I have never felt more loved by my fur babies and my friends. This has been an incredible blessing.  

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna + Tess + The Circus

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Title: When You Love A Dog
Author: M.H. Clark
Illustrator: Tatsuro Kiuchi
Publisher: Compendium Publishing
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781943200986

Books, Fiction

A Christmas Treasury

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A Christmas Treasury is the perfect seasonal anthology! | Comforter (is perfection)

Should I Read Go Buy It
Length 368
Quick Review It is the quintessential collection of Christmas stories for the family. The perfect book to place on your coffee table year after year.

If there is one book you should purchase this Christmas season, it should be A Christmas Treasury. Not only is it a beautifully bound book, it is filled with iconic stories of the season and stunning illustrations. I also love the glossy pages. Nothing, to me, says classy like a glossy page. No bookmark needed; one comes included. Like I said: classy. It is the most beautiful book I have read all year. 

Every year, books are published to celebrate the spirit of the season. (I have read a bunch this year.) This is not a new phenomenon. Over time, some stories and poems have become ingrained in our psyches and traditions being passed down through the generations. Some stories have even shaped cultural identities and celebrations regarding the imagery, language, and even food we eat during the Christmas season. Sugar plums! Do you know what a sugar plum is? It’s delicious. Even if you don’t know what it is, you most likely think about them around Christmas time. There’s a poem to thank for that, which is in the book!  

A Christmas Treasury starts out with the legendary A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. If there is one Christmas story, it is this one. The rest of the pages are graced by the likes of Louisa May Alcott, O. Henry, L Frank Baum, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Clement Clarke Moore (of course), and more. The stories are beautiful and classic. They are sure to captivate even the youngest readers without disappointing the more seasoned Christmasers.

Even if you can’t make it through all the stories, you’ll have time to read one or two. It is perfect to read with your children – or someone else’s children with parental permission, obviously – before bed all through the Christmas season for years to come. Maybe, they’ll even read it to their children someday.

I really like this book. A lot. It is such a gorgeous anthology. It oozes Christmas spirit. I just want to hold it and walk around with it. That makes me cool, right?

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Title: A Christmas Treasury
Publisher: Sterling Publisher Co.
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781435164598