Did you know that the phrase ‘dog days of summer’ refers to the hottest and most humid period of the season? Which kind of describes the weather since May actually. Oy. I wish I had a pool I could cool off in like this doggo. 🙂 Fun Fact: the term goes way back to Ancient Greece and Rome who thought the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star added to the intensity of the sun’s heat.
Anyway, in celebration of these lazy, hazy dog days of summer, I thought it would be fun to chat about dogs (and pets in general) in our fiction. Oh – and I also have a couple of random ‘gardening in extreme heat questions’ for all you Southern Gardners so read to the end.
So – dogs (and pets) in fiction. Are you a fan? A dog lover in general? I wish we had the ability to share photos in the comments, I’d love to see your fur babies! This is my grandpuppy, Tobey. I’m the go to dog sitter when needs arise. He’s a wonderful cuddlebug but he’s also stubborn. Doesn’t like to retrace his steps on a walk – in other words always wants to head away from home into infinity. lol So I rigged up a basket on my rollator (walker) and when he balks at turning around I scoop him up and give him a ride for a bit. We get lots of snickers around the neighbourhood. And now the poor little guy has a heart murmur and asthma so riding in the basket has become more of a necessity.
Do you have a favourite fictional dog hero/heroine? Or author who knows how to write ‘dog’? A pet peeve of mine is when a dog or other pet is included in a story but barely referenced other than to say ‘let the dog out’ or ‘fed the cat’ — I mean, why bother adding an animal into the story at all if you aren’t going to develop its character and the relationship between hero or heroine and pet.
I can think of a ton of fictional canine examples but I will restrain myself and just share this one. Clyde from Sandpiper Cove (Hope Harbor #3). This is what I said about Clyde and his human in my review: “You can tell a lot about a hero by the way he treats a dog. And Clyde will tell you that Adam is a keeper. Some of my favourite scenes are between this life-battered pair. A man who has had a rough start in life and the abused dog he rescued. Both are wary of getting too close to people, finding comfort and safety in their solitude.”
Extreme Heat Gardening Questions:
I know there are a few avid gardeners in the crowd so I am making an urgent appeal. Our growing season is so out of whack that some plants flowered early, others sped through their flowering period and others seem frozen in time. Not dying off but not blooming either. So I have questions – especially for gardeners who work with these conditions all the time.
- My tomato plants are looking hale and hardy — I’ve been good about watering them regularly and I even have lots of green tomatoes…only they have been green for weeks. Not rotting but not ripening either. I read that they will kind of go dormant in extreme heat but will go back to their normal growth cycle once there’s relief from the heat. But it’s been…wow, over three weeks for some of my plants. Is there anything I can do to help ripen the tomatoes? Or is it just a waiting game? Which really doesn’t make sense since a lot of our off season tomatoes come from Mexico which is super hot, so why would they ripen there and not here? Help!
- For my flowers that bloomed early. If I cut them back will they bloom again? (Shasta daisies, asters, flax, wild geraniums, bee balm…perennials.) I’ve already dead-headed the daisies and one kind of bee balm and did a get a second flowering but I’m wondering since the weather is so warm, will I get new growth if I cut it all back?
- I have a really pretty purply-pink aster that literally turned gray over night after a thunderstorm and days of severe heat. It’s like all the pigment got zapped out of the petals! Happened to my daisies too. One day they were pretty white petals with bright yellow centres, the next day the petals were gray and the centres were black!!!! I feel like I’m growing. a Munster Family garden. How do Southern gardeners stop the weather from messing with their colour palette?!
Giveaway Opportunity:
Come chat in the comments and I will add your name into a draw for a $10 Baker Book House gift card (Amazon for Canadian readers.)
Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 2, 2025.
Kav's Best Reads 
I love dogs! In fiction and real life. I have a Jack Russell named Trudy. She’s a ball of energy, but sweet as can be! As for fictional dogs, the first that came to mind is the Barks & Beans Cafe series with the Great Dane, Coal.
manderley23 at gmail dot com
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Jack Russells are awesome, though I hear you have to keep them busy or they’ll find trouble. Love the name Trudy. Might have to steal that if I ever get a dog again. Thanks for reminding me about Barks & Beans Cafe. I read the first book a while back and the rest of them got lost by the wayside. Love Great Danes and big, goofy dogs in general. Good luck, Kimmy!
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She definitely has a lot of energy, but thankfully she’s not as high maintenance as some Jacks. She’s mostly just a little baby about everything and as long as she gets adequate attention, she’s well behaved!
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I enjoy pets in the story if they’re an integral part of it, and especially if they’re quirky ones.
Gardening questions: I’ve heard that cutting down on water will help to ripen the tomatoes on the vine. I’ve also heard that you can pick them when they’re not quite ripe and let them ripen indoors. Some people do this routinely when they just start to get some color. I tried that last year and it works quite well.
If you deadhead some flowers, they will bloom again, but usually not as full and lush. Daisies, salvia, some roses. I’m not sure about asters–mine are late blooming, so I don’t think they’d grow back quickly enough to bloom again. I usually cut my salvia back a lot and it will bloom again. It’s not as full and pretty as the first bloom, though. It wouldn’t hurt to experiment with some of them.
I don’t know about your gray flowers. I’ve had some fade as the bloom is dying, but I’ve never had them go gray. Could it be some kind of disease/fungus/powdery mildew? You might have to trim them back. If it’s mold/fungus, you need to dispose of the diseased parts in the garbage.
I’m by no means an expert gardener, so this advice is worth what it cost you! LOL
whthomas13 at yahoo dot com
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Yes, the quirky ones are the best – especially if their owner has a quirky relationship with them too. 🙂 So much fun. Thanks for all your gardening insights. I’ve done the dead-heading thing which gives me the secondary blooms, though, as you say, not as showy as the first so I guess I haven nothing to lose my mowing the daisies at least back…and maybe I’ll try with one group of bee balm, and see if I get new baby shoots coming up. The gray flowers have me befuddled. I don’t think it’s a fungus though. Honestly, I think some days I look about gray due to the heat and humidity. Bwahahaha! Good luck, Winnie!
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Good Sunday morning Kav and Best Readers. Aw, your little grandpup Tobey is so cute. Love that you have figured out how to outsmart him, haha.
Dogs can add a lot of dimension to a story. The last one I read with a dog as a memorable character was The Bitter End Birding Society. Dog and bird lovers alike will enjoy it, but there’s a lot more to this dual timeline to delve into than just the animals/birds. It would be a good book for discussion and will release in about 3 weeks. Btw: Sandpiper Cover is one of my favorite Hope Harbor books, wonder if it’s Clyde who makes the difference?
My husband is the guy with the green thumb around here and we’ve had a bumper crop of tomatoes, over 500 at least! That’s not a typo either. (He does have over 20 plants, way more than we need but it’s his hobby so…) We use what we can then share the rest with family, neighbors and friends. Tomatoes don’t have to stay on the vine to ripen, but as fast and furious as they are coming in we are getting lots of red ones. He sometimes will pick some of the bigger ones while still green just to keep anything from getting to it before he does. Cucumbers, green/red peppers, and squash are also doing great. Ten miles away my daughters garden is struggling, so I don’t really know what makes the difference?! *Tomatoes don’t like to be watered everyday either, every 2nd or 3rd day is fine.
Flowers can really show off at times and other times be persnickety. I had bee balm for a number of years then one year it was just gone, I thought maybe it was the extreme cold that winter, but your winters are colder than mine so that blows that theory. I find that with both vegetable and flower gardening there is a lot of trial and error. We have taken some of our annuals, geraniums, begonias, hibiscus, and over-wintered them in the garage. He cuts them back and waters them once a month. Some are on their fourth or fifth year coming back. A nice savings to the plant budget.
I hope everyone stays cool today. I’ll be watching the birdfeeders and garden from my kitchen window. We already have an extreme heat warning for today at 8:00 in the morning! Our June and July have had record highs and been extremely hot. The electric bill I got yesterday proves it but I’m so thankful for air conditioning!!!
Happy Reading weekend everyone! tracey14567 @gmail.com
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Now you have me really intrigued by the Bitter End Birding Society – it’s just moved its way closer to the top of my wishlist. I can’t resist a good doggy character. Yay for loving Sandpiper Cove too and yes, there’s just something about the way the author can dig deep into Adam’s heart through his conversations with Clyde that reveal so much about his back story and what he’s going through as a result. Makes all the difference, I think.
500 tomatoes already????!!! I’m in awe. I may have been watering my tomatoes too much in my attempt to combat the heat. I only have four plants in the ground, the rest are in felt pots which tend to dry out faster but I’ve modified to every other day in recent weeks just because it’s been so unbearably hot for me to be out there. I have to hand water with a water can. Watering my garden front and back takes about 2 km of walking! Thank goodness for audio books to distract me!
I can’t seem to grow peppers. They are always stunted and then the baby peppers turn to mush. I’ve given up! Thankfully there’s a great local farmer’s market that sets up shop in a park every Saturday near by so I can get them there.
We have a heat warning through Wednesday — ugh! You’ve reminded me that even if I’m not going to go out and water any plants today, I should top up my bird and bee baths for my feathery and buzzy friends! Good luck, Tracey!
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Love stories with animals in them and yes, I’m partial to dogs. Love the K-9 stories where you can see two sides of the dogs – faithful companion, often a lifeline of support, and as a working, skilled dog. I agree with you on give them personality or a job to do if in the story. After all, isn’t that what they are in real life. Our furbabies are our little boys in fur suits and most definitely the most important family members. 😊
For the flowers, I won’t cut them entirely back (that’s a fall event), but you can deadhead down to the next leaf joint to promote future growth – busing out and flowering. Some do better than others. However, either way your plants look better without the dead flowers on them. Plus you can save those deadheads – completely dry them on newspaper and then collect the seeds for next years garden.
Sorry, but south or north, mother nature has the upper hand. This year’s just been a strange one for us. We had an exceptionally wet spring and early summer and then the faucet turned off and extreme heat. Both not a great thing in their own, but combined they play havoc for those trying to grow things. We have lost plants due to the unregulated amounts of water and to the heat. Feeling lucky to have what we do due to surviving the early rains and then lots of dragging of the water hose. Even our veggie garden, which is normally lush and picture worth, has had great struggles this year. We are getting enough to fulfill our present needs, but not the excess for sharing or freezing. We are just thankful for what we got and hope next year will be a better one as far as the growing season.
I think it’s more of a waiting game. I do know that when a tomato has started to ripen (I’d say over 1/3 to ½ pinkest red) you can pick them to ripen faster. I put a layer of newspaper on a cookie sheet, lay them with stem end (taken off) down. Usually when that end ripens more, I turn them over. We do this two-fold, to prevent them from becoming bird food and to help them ripen. And for the Mexican tomatoes, I read that instead of more greenhouse tomatoes, that they use more of a shade houses. I interpret that as a greenhouse with no sides or just a canopy top.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
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I love K-9 stories too. And you can tell the dog loving/owning authors from the ones writing because it’s a popular sub genre in suspense and cozy mysteries. I just gave up on a cozy mystery because the heroine had a dog — a sheltie even (I’ve had four!) — and all she did was come home, feed the dog and repeat. Or, worse, she went straight from work out to dinner with friends with no thought to the poor lonely dog crossing her paws at home, desperate to be let out. Just no. Oh, and the heroine was a runner but she never brought her dog with her? Like, why bother having a dog in the story? I think because the author thought it was part of the cozy formula and she ticked that box. Grrrrr. Oops, sorry for that rant.
Good point about deadheading instead of cutting right back. I might have to do an experiment and try both ways and see what happens. 🙂 And here I thought those of you in the southern climes have it easy when it comes to gardening. I guess Mother Nature likes to mess with gardeners no matter where we live.
Thanks for the ripening tomatoes indoors tip. I’ve just set them in my kitchen window to ripen — but that’s always been in the fall when I’m afraid the frost is going to mess with production. Right now all the tomatoes are as green as green can be and none of them are showing any signs of changing colour. Usually by now I have them in all different stages. The squirrels aren’t even tempted by them! Thanks for the chat, Kay. Good luck!
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Good morning, Kav! I’ve been MIA, but oh, what a week! Son was in hospital for a few days w/ an awful stomach virus & severe dehydration. In the meantime, had a small gathering for hubby’s b’day, then I got the stomach bug! 😩 Not bad (thank God) but had to attend a family gathering yesterday for family visiting from CA. Was weak & dizzy, but I was there.
I love pets included in books, especially if they play an integral part of the plot. Ronie Kendig has some good ones as does Susan Sleeman. I don’t have a pet since we had to put ours down, but I enjoy others’ pets. When my niece comes from Charleston to stay with us she brings Lucy, her pug. What a sweetie! Your Tobey is a cutie pie! ❤
Hubby can only grow peppers so far bc of the heat & insects, so no help there. White daisies will turn gray w/ black when they get hot so I deadhead them & in the 90s you may have to water twice a day. To deadhead follow stem down to new growth & snip. Don’t just pinch off dead blossom. For geraniums you deadhead same way. Snip dead blossom all the way down at the bottom of the stem where it meets other stems.
For potted plants about once every 2 weeks I fill up pitcher of water (or watering can) & mix in Miracle-gro Bloom Boosters. They’ll bloom like crazy all summer long. Petunias & marigolds can be deadheaded by just pinching off blossoms & vinca require none. For flowers growing in the garden hubby screws miracle-gro on hose & waters flowers that way every few weeks. My gerber daisies are almost knee high & plentiful. Vinca & Shastas are thigh high. I deadhead 1 or 2 dead blossoms & 4 or 5 pop back up. Miracle-Gro every 2-3 weeks & lotsa water is the key to beautiful flowers!! Some folks swear by adding Epsom salts, but I’ve not had any luck with that.
dianalflowers at aol dot com
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So sorry to hear about the sickness plaguing your family! If I’m reading that correctly, your son is home now and recovering? So glad you are on the mend too and you could still visit with family. I guess dehydration might be more of a risk with summer viruses because of the heat. Does not sound fun at all!
A pug named Lucy makes me smile! I had a pug living next door for years and he was such a rascal, but cute and a button and such an affectionate fellow. Liked to snarf down my cherry tomatoes though and he was always figuring out ways to wriggle under the fence to get at my garden. Amazing how such a portly gentleman managed to squeeze his way through the narrowest of gaps.
I haven’t read any of Ronie Kendal’s K-9 books yet — I know, what is wrong with me? I actually have one on my audible TBR wishlist.
I’ve been dead heading the daisies but I don’t see any signs of new buds. Might be too hot? Interesting that you fertilize. I was wondering about that. I have an organic one for tomatoes and veggies but it says not to apply in extreme heat so……..lol Hadn’t though about applying it to any of my annuals. I only have marigolds and they seem to be doing well with just pinching back but maybe I’ll give it a go. I had snap dragons but marauding baby bunnies ate them all. They were so cute I couldn’t get mad. I even went to the garden centre and bought more at a half price sale and planted them again just so the bunnies could have the pleasure of snapping off the dragon heads. Bwahahahaha!
Good luck, Diane. Hope you recover quickly!
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Son is doing well & never wants to see the inside of a hospital again! Youth. They spring back quickly, thank the Lord. I had one of those “get you up two nights in a row bc you don’t need your sleep anyway” tummy bugs 🙄 & altho I went to get-together I had very little appetite. Today I can eat! Yay! Thanks for the well wishes, Kav.
I’m not a big fan of military books, but I enjoyed Chaos & another (I think Riot?) Definitely out of my comfort zone so I was surprised how much I enjoyed them.
Daisies come back slowly & that’s when we use the Miracle-Gro. We wait til shade is over the house (altho it’s still hot), then fertilize. Never in the sun. Wait a few days & it’s like Jack in the Beanstalk!! lol We have a bunny, too. Probably more than one. Believe it or not something loves our marigold leaves. They smell awful so I can’t imagine anything loving them, but I think it’s our bunny (ies). I’m not sure, but just the way the leaves are chewed I know it isn’t an insect. Miracle-Gro doesn’t seem to hurt our critters so we don’t have any qualms about using it.
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Enjoy dogs in books. Sorry no help as far as a garden goes as i live in an apartment and no place to grow one.
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At least you don’t have the frustrations of gardening in this heat! You can just enjoy other people’s gardens from afar. Good luck, Kim!
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I love dogs and currently enjoy my 2 grand puppies, a black lab and a yellow lab. They are the sweetest but don’t always realize how BIG they are😊
I enjoy dogs in my books too and am loving the Dana Mentink series Security Hounds Investigations.
Good luck with your garden, I’m definitely not a gardener and appreciate the hard work that it takes!
Sandyavery at comcast dot net
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We have tons of labs and golden retrievers and labradoodles in my neighbourhood. Too big for me to manage these days but they give the best hugs!
Yessss…Dana Mentink is brilliant at speaking dog and I love The Security Hounds Investigations too, she always adds an interesting twist to the dogs’ characters and writes the human/dog relationship so well. Good luck, Sandy!
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I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. Your visiting Tobey grandpuppy is quite charming and looks forward to his ride. I thought you meant he didn’t like to backtrack and wanted a different way, like a circle, so he could greet more people on his adventure. I am sure he misses you!
Two ways I ripen green tomatoes ~ for soon eating, put them in a small brown paper bag, folding the top down. Check them every now and then. As they begin to redden, you can also put them in a bag in the refrigerator to slow the process down. At end of growing season, wrap green tomatoes individually in newspaper, place in a bushel basket, put in a dark cool place and take out what you need all winter for cooking. Doesn’t that sound easy, haha? Kathleen
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That dog has an uncanny way of knowing when you’re trying to circle him back towards home, even it it’s blocks away. Such a scamp. Thanks for the ripening tomato tips. I think I’ll pick one and give it a try . I am soooo anxious for the first taste of a tomato from my own garden! Good luck, Kathleen!
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I enjoy reading about pets in books. With the excessive rain & then excessive heat , then no rain, too much humidity, etc everyone here is struggling with there gardens. I cut all the bottom leaves about 1/3 of the way up to force ripening of my tomatoes and finally started getting some.
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Oh, that’s a good idea. I pinched out those little shoots that grow between the main stems early on and I thinned away some of the leaves so more light could get at the tomatoes, but I guess if the plant is putting energy in on useless low lying leaves it could be zapping the poor plants. I have enough this year to experiment so I think I’ll try different suggestions with a few plants and see what works best. This is the first year I grew my own tomatoes from seed and I couldn’t kill off any of the seedlings so I planted them all over the place – way too many for just me. Mind you, with this wonky weather I might end up with the just the right amount of tomatoes in the end. Good luck, Lucy!
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Kav, I like dogs in books if they play a meaningful part. This goes back a ways, but the one I’ve probably liked the best is Barnabas in The Mitford series. He is quite a character 🙂 I’m no help when it comes to gardening so I’ll just say Good Luck! 🙂
ckbarker at gmail dot com
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I still haven’t tried the Mitford series but my library has all of them so someday. I think I’d like to meet Barnabas! Good luck, Cheryl!
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Kav, you’d definitely get a kick out of him. You should start with the first book in the series so you’re properly introduced to him 🙂
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I’m a hobby gardener but the first step I would take is to put up some sort of a shade for protection. They make some shade tarps with a loose weave so that it doesn’t block all the light but lets some through. I’ve also seen some people that literally put an umbrella over their plants during the hottest few hours of the day. Good luck!!!
colorvibrant at gmail dot com
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Now that’s an idea I haven’t heard before. And I saw some cute little parasols in the dollar store last week. Bwahahaha — would that get the neighbours talking if I rigged up parasols over all my tomato plants. 🙂 Thanks, Heidi. Good luck!
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I love dogs! I even have the pleasure of dog/house sitting for my friends. Canine therapy is the best!
psalm103and138atgmaildotcom
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I agree, canine therapy is the best. And I follow a few dog rescue/training groups on Youtube which is almost as therapeutic as having a dog yourself. I’m correctly addicted to Sitting With Dogs. Think I’ll go watch an episode now. Good luck, Caryl!
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I think it’s annuals that benefit the most from deadheading, since they have only one season to reproduce and therefore put all their effort into flower/seed production. However, it typically won’t hurt perennials if you deadhead–if you can stop the process before they can make seed, they may decide it’s worth trying to flower again. If they’ve already gone to seed, the plant will feel like it did it’s job and be content, even if it was early. I doubt the wild geraniums will rebloom (assuming it is the native variety – mine have been done for a month or more in Minnesota, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the seed is already mature).
I grew up on a farm where animals typically have a purpose, so I appreciate a good working dog like the border collie in Burning Sky by Lori Benton, or the sled dogs in Sabotaged by Dani Pettrey. But on the whole I don’t really care about pets in books (unless it’s particularly funny, as Jen Turano often manages with the critters in her books).
rdalquist AT gmail DOT com
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Ohhh, lost of words of wisdom here from a farm girl, no less. I do like a good working dog story too. K-9 or working farm dog. And I do love a dog with a sense of humour. Bwahahaha!!! I have one kind of geranium that flowers early in the spring and it has gone to seed but I have another kind, with the smaller flowers, cranesbill I think they are called and usually they bloom continuously throughout the summer and into the fall but this year they just stopped blooming. I’m debating on giving them a good haircut and see what happens. Or maybe leaving some untouched and see if they revive on their own. The leaves and stems are still green, it’s just the blossoms that are missing. Good luck, Rachael!
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I enjoy when pets are included in books though I can’t think of any favorites right now. We are having hot, humid weather and quite a bit of rain last week. Two of my cherry tomato plants in pots are producing a few tomatoes. The third was planted later so hasn’t yet. The flowers are doing well. I’ve never seen anything like what happened to yours, changing color. Gardening is often an adventure.
pmkellogg56[at]gmail[dot]com
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Yes, so many gardening adventures. Battling the weather is enough of a conundrum but then there’s all the chipmunk antics! My neighbour used to have a mighty hunter of a cat but she has since passed over the rainbow bridge (the cat, not the neighbour!) so the chipmunks are back in droves this year. Cute as all get out but they make rotten amateur gardeners. 🙂 Good luck, Pam!
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R. J. Larson’s Books of the Infinite series had some GREAT animal characterization with a horse that sooo reminded me of Maximus from Tangled when I read it, because of the interaction between he and the hero😅 Also, Shadowless by Alison Robinson! Not only did she make fun and exciting animal companions, but the allegorical aspect of the story was so unique and phenomenal! One more book-pet that just came to mind also was the heroine’s cat from Sarah Monzon’s An Overdue Match. I thought the cat was hilarious because of its authentic portrayal of a real cat, lol.
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Don’t you just love it when authors get the catitude just right? 🙂 Ohh, Shadowless sounds really good. Kinda reminds me of Wild Magic by Tamora Pearce. Not CF, but a YA book about a girl in a land with magic, but she has wild magic she can’t quite control and it involves being able to talk to animals. I think I need to give that a reread. Thanks for the nudge, Elly. 🙂 Good luck!
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I’m confident that I have read about and connected with dogs, but more fresh in my memory is a bird named Butterness from “What the River Keeps,” by Cheryl Gray Bostrom.
We have an adorable mutt named Pollyanna 🙂 she looks golden retriever ish but the doggy dna test said her most predominant breed is Rottweiler
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Wait — a golden retriever looking dog with the soul of a Rottweiler? lol That’s an oxymoron. Love that her name is Pollyanna, very golden retrieverish! You don’t see many bird characters in fiction. I love critters of all kinds (as long as they aren’t serpentish!) I’ll have to keep a look out for What the River Keeps. Seems to me that was a popular pick during our last Reader’s Choice Week. Good luck, Stephanie!
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I live in the south, and we are definitely in the dog days of summer! I believe today is our 37th or 38th day above 90°. It does look like that streak will be broken later this week, thankfully. I am not a gardener, so I can’t help with those heat related, gardening questions.
I do enjoy pets in fiction, but not too many stand out in my mind right off. I do remember the dog Gunner in Charles Martin’s keeper series, a faithful companion for sure!
Most of my life we have had either cats or dogs in the house. Right now we have a spoiled rotten cocker spaniel. She was born on Christmas day and will be six years old this Christmas. Would love to share a photo of her with you.=)
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I love spaniels. Cocker spaniels aren’t very common in my area but we have three Cavalier King Charles (adorable!) and one Springer Spaniel who lives up to his name – Tigger. He likes to bounce. 🙂 Our heat is supposed to break on Wednesday…if I can survive that long! lol Good luck, Patty!
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I am a dog lover so having a dog in a story is always appreciated.
I agree that this has beenI a very trying gardening season! Here in Kentucky, we had a lot of rain but now, it’s VERY hot and VERY humid! In answer to Question 2: I can’t answer for shasta daisies but I often break back my petunias around this time of year. They get leggy and don’t bloom as they did earlier. I break them back quite a bit. fertilize and water with a Miracle Gro solution, and they soon experience a second burst of beautiful blooms. Hope this works for you!
Connie
cps1950ATgmailDOTcom
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If there’s a dog on the cover or in the book blurb I am that much more likely to buy the book. 🙂 I love getting my dog fix in my fiction since I don’t have a dog in my real life anymore. Thanks for the petunia tip. I am growing some for the first time this year. I’ve kept them deadheaded and I keep getting new flowers but I have noticed that they are getting leggy. I had heard you could really cut them back and they’d bloom again bushier. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to risk it but now that I know someone who actually does that successfully, I’ll be brave and give it a go. 🙂 Good luck, Connie!
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I am a dog lover through and through. A story is just better with a dog in it. Life is just better with a dog in it.
mauback55 at gmail dot com
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You are exactly right, Melanie! Good luck!
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Oh, I’m sorry about your garden! My Grannie used to pick her tomatoes when they were still green, then leave them on her back porch, or windowsill to finish ripening. Although if they’re still green and small that probably won’t help. We’ve had really bad luck with our garden the last two or three years. In fact, last year we only ended up with a handful of tomatoes, 4 jalapeños (and that was with having multiple plants), only 3 or 4 good tasting cucumbers. Also, our broccoli plants started to grow, then shot up 4 feet high and just grew seed pods. Every other plant we had would start to grow, become established, then die for seemingly no reason. It’s really strange.
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Yikes, that’s a gardener’s nightmare! I guess there are good years and bad years. I have never had success with cucumbers — squirrels and chipmunks chomp the flowers off! Grrrrrrrr. Good luck, Sabrina!
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My granddughter has 3 golden doodles. Last week Miley, the oldest, had her 9th birthday. We took her on a road trip to 2 pet stores. She got a new bone, a new toy, and a treat shaped like a donut with pink topping and sprinkles! She behaved so well.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
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3 golden doodles?! That must be a fun household! Love that Miley got to go birthday shopping. Bwahahaha! Good luck, rubynreba!
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I know it wasn’t technically a dog, but I did enjoy the pet wolf in Karen Witemeyer’s Cloaked in Beauty!
I’m not sure about the specific flowers you have, but we’ve had luck with cutting back our roses and cone flowers after they bloomed and they did bloom again.
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A wolf with doggy tendencies. 🙂 Such a great tie in to the fairy tale too. Good luck, Bridget!
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Well, you’ve found topics that I am extremely not helpful with! I tolerate dogs and like cats but am allergic to both. Do my two lazy hens count? OK, so one is not so lazy but blind in one eye. She has Stevie Wonder moves🤣🤣🤣🤣. We also can’t grow much here because of the heat, poor soil (rocky) and too much shade in our yard. I am hanging on to my succulents indoors that are from my daughter in law, but they could take a dying gasp of breath any day now. But on the bright side, we’ve been blessed with much cooler temps lately. Our high temps were back in May (very unusual). Under 100 is fine by me!
perrianne (DOT) askew (AT) me (DOT) com
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Now that you mention it, a hen would make an interesting critter character. I’m sure yours could provide lots of inspiration for an author. 🙂 I don’t know what I’d do without my garden to fuss over. Every summer it’s something different but there’s nothing so rewarding as succeeding in growing something…for me, anyway. I find succulents tricky. Killed my fair share of them but I have four that are finally thriving in an east facing window. I am so proud. Touch wood! I might have jinxed myself! Good luck, Perrianne!
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