Here is a picture of my lovely dog Cheyenne. She doesn’t really have red eyes, I just don’t know how to fix them in the picture. She’s actually a brown-eyed husky. Believe it or not, she only weighs 45 pounds, most of what you see here is winter fur. In April, her winter coat comes out and rolls like tumble weeds across my floors. It literally looks like it’s been snowing in my back yard when I comb her out.

Now, like the rest of the females in my family, Cheyenne is pretty, but not well behaved. You see, she’s much too smart for her own good. She knows how to open the back door (the one in the picture) but doesn’t know how to CLOSE it. With the high today of 18, that makes for some seriously COLD FREAKING TILES.

I spend most of my day letting her out to run around in the back yard, then running to the kitchen to shut the door after she comes in. Because she’s of Siberian descent, she likes to leave the door open and lay on the tile in front of the artic breeze. It makes for quite the interesting day.

God forbid I LOCK the door so she can’t come in when she chooses, though. She has a howl that sounds like someone poking her with hot irons. Repeatedly. I’ve had workers run out of the house thinking someone was being murdered. She rarely barks, but her howl can be heard around the neighborhood. It’s very embarrassing.

The reason I’m introducing Cheyenne now is because the new story I have coming out from Samhain in April has a Siberian Husky as one of the characters. This isn’t the first time I’ve introduced one of my pets into one of my books. If anyone read REBEL’S LUST the cat Max was based entirely on my cat Max.

He’s 10 years old, fat, lazy, and completely loveable. The girls put him in baby carriages, cribes, and doll clothes and he just gives a weak “merow” for help but doesn’t hurt them. He’s the closest I’ll ever get to having a son, hahaha.

I’ll look for a picture of him and post that soon too.

Have a great afternoon!
Ari

Okay, here’s the scoop on what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks. Between visits to the hospital to see my dad and running the kids all over the state, my husband and I have been painting.

We started off painting our bedroom on my birthday, oh what joy. Once that was finished (the rug will be installed soon, yay!) we went to work on the dining room and the hallway. These were the last three areas of the house that hadn’t been painted. In April we’ll have been in the house 9 years, so we figured it was time.

Well, I figured it was time. I think Paul could have waited a while longer. Anyway, here are the results!!! It’s a little dark because it’s just too darn cold here for me to open the door to let the light in, but you get the idea. I still need to pick out the curtains for the dining room, and I’d dearly love to replace the hallway carpeting, but I need to get out of debt first.

Next I want to repaint the living room. Right now it’s white with a stencil I hate. I want to actually try some color in the living room too, what a shock! Up to this point, most of the house was off white, I’ve started to get addicted to colors!!!

I need to get all the inside home improvement stuff taken care of before April, because by then I’ll want to start working in the yard. Cross your fingers that spring comes early. If I suggest one more painting project to my husband he may just kill me, hahahahaha