After Happily Ever After - or Romance, Pets, and Chicken Wire.

Today I get to introduce to you Catherine Mann, a truly wonderful author and a really lovely lady. I met Cathy eons ago while conferencing and after reading some of her books, I became a fan. She writes from the heart, with hunky heroes and real emotion. I can guarantee you'll enjoy hers tories, and her company, as much as I do.

Naturally, like me, and many of you, Cathy is an animal lover. I LOVE the blog she's sharing with us.

Let's give Catherine Mann a big, warm Quillster welcome!



Greetings, everyone!

Many thanks to Lori Foster for inviting me to stop by and share about my September release, HIS EXPECTANT EX from Silhouette Desire. This reunion romance includes a couple of my favorite themes:

**Keeping romance alive in a long term relationship.

**Pets.

You may be wondering how the two of those relate.
That brings me to a story about my own dear handsome hubby of twenty-one years.

My husband is a rare gem in that he always remembers my birthday, our anniversary, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc., even when the Air Force may have sent him thousands of miles away.

I do so enjoy when the delivery guy shows up with a surprise bouquet of wildflowers or my flyboy hubby struts in the door with a box of Godivas. But the longer we're married, the more I realize his best gifts can be less pricey and surprisingly unusual. My favorite ever gift from my husband?

Chicken wire.

Yes, you read that right. I should probably backtrack a bit to explain.

Last year, I got a puppy, an adorable Boston Terrier/pug/beagle/mystery breed pound rescue named Sadie. We had a general idea of her adult size based on the vet’s guess, and we knew she would be on the small side. However, we never counted on her being so little and lean she could bolt right through the pickets on our pool fence.

Yipes! She quickly found every porch in the neighborhood with pet food. (Hey, did I mention she’s brilliant as well as adorable?!)

I increased walks with Sadie to drain her energy, while waiting for her to grow big enough to enjoy our large yard without escaping. After 6 months I feared it would never happen.

Replacing the fence was out of the question. The fence is big and pricey. My husband fretted over options. He really, really prides himself on having a pristine yard. One of our neighbors suggested weaving chicken wire through the pickets.

My husband visibly paled.

We waited another month for her to grow. No luck. I continued to walk my feet off in cold, rainy weather with Sadie (while feeding her very frequently and praying “Grow, puppy, grow!”)

A few days later, I readied Sadie for her walk – HUGE storm clouds looming. I stepped outside and found my husband. On his knees. Weaving chicken wire through the white pool fence.

Bless his big heart, he worked in the rain to finish before he had to leave that afternoon for a two week trip. And yes, the chicken wire worked. Our fence has been Sadie proofed with - as my husband calls it - poultry fencing!

What a gift! What a guy!

How about you? I would love to hear your stories about unique/unusual/surprising romantic gifts or gestures.

I also have a new page on my website devoted to PRECIOUS FUR BABIES with photos of my pets as well as pictures of some of my favorite authors with their pets (including Lori Foster, Suzanne Brockmann and more.)

Do you have pets? A cute or moving pet story to share?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Hugs,

Cathy ;-)
http://catherinemann.com/