Christmas on Cougar Mountain - Nancy Radke
Hard-working Zoey is dedicated to helping children learn, and has built her business to the
neglect of having a family. When she rescues a dog on the freeway, she discovers that the escape artist
brings a family with him, including a boy she would like to help, and as love grows, a man she would like
to keep. But will Kellen ever trust her to help his son, much less give her his
heart?t.
Excerpt
About the Author
A dog... on the freeway! Or just about. A lovely Border Collie, it was
walking up the on-ramp, headed into deadly traffic. Zoey's headlights picked up the shadowy form as
she drove past.
Quickly decelerating, she pulled over to the edge and stopped,
throwing on her emergency flashers. She hadn't reached the actual freeway yet, she still had about
thirty feet before the lanes merged. Watching for any cars coming up the on-ramp behind her, she
opened her driver's door and stepped out into the pouring rain. It was December in Seattle, so she was
used to it. She splashed around to the back of her car and called the dog.
"Here boy. Here girl." What did you call a dog when you were a total
stranger? "Come on." She bent forward and patted her hands against her legs. Zoey had grown up on a
farm in Idaho and was no stranger to animals. She used her very best, soft coaxing voice, one that had
saved the lives of lambs and other baby animals who had lost their mamas and had to be coaxed into
eating. "Come on, pet. This is no place for you. You'll get killed, or cause a pile-up, as people try to miss
you. Come on, sweet."
The dog paused, looking about, totally bewildered, then looked
toward her, head low. Hers was the only encouraging, friendly voice around, and Zoey called again,
wishing she had even part of a sandwich to help bring the dog to her. The rain soaked her hair and shoes
and made short work of her raincoat. She could feel the moisture working its way around the
collar.
"Come on. Would you like to go for a
ride?"
The collie lifted its head.
"Ride? Go for a ride?"
That evidently meant something, and Zoey hurried over to the
passenger door and opened it. "Get in! Ride."
The dog bounded forward and leaped into her car. She shut the door
quickly. None too soon, as two cars made the turn and were headed up the ramp, their headlights
blinding her. She waited for them to swerve around and pass on by, then she rounded her car, cracked
open the driver's door, and slipped inside.
A wet tongue greeted her, adding to the wetness on her face. The
dog was halfway onto the driver's seat, thoroughly soaked, and Zoey had to push it away so that she
could sit down. It put a wet paw on her arm and licked her face, treating her like a long lost friend, giving
her a big doggy "thank you."
"Down. Get down," she protested, thankful that she had chosen to
travel in her jeans and heavy coat, rather than in her better clothes.
The dog immediately jumped down on the floor and sat there, head
cocked to one side, as if to say, "Now what?"
She stared out into the pouring rain. Almost a monsoon. Now that
she had the collie off the freeway, what was she going to do with it? She was still close to Bellevue,
although not familiar with this neighborhood.
"Well, I'm not going to have to worry that you'll bite me," she said,
flipping on her turn signal and accelerating onto the freeway. "Let's hope your owner had a chip put in
you."
She continued alongside the freeway for a few hundred feet, then
pulled back off it, following the cloverleaf around. She drove down to the small shopping mall where she
had stopped to get some coffee. There should be a veterinarian somewhere close. She didn't want to
take the dog with her, out of the area where she found it, in case the owners were looking for it.
Flipping on her phone, she searched for a nearby vet's office. She
found an animal hospital about a mile away, and drove to it.
Leaving the dog in the car, she tried the office door. Still
open.
"Hi. I found a dog on the freeway, and would like to see if it has a
locator chip," she called across the room to the attendant.
"Sure. Bring him in."
Zoey still wasn't sure if the dog was male or female, so checked when
she opened the door to take it out. Male.
He ran happily ahead of her, but when she said "Heel," he came in
close to her left side and stayed there.
"Well, someone has been teaching you manners," she said, opening
the vet's door and going inside.
"He doesn't look like he's been injured," the lady said, as they
approached her.
"No. He was running up the on-ramp when I got
him."
The attendant petted the dog on the head and got a sweeping tail
wag response. "Good boy. He might have been following his owner's car. Dogs do that, expecting to get
picked up. Then they get lost or hurt."
"If so, he might be from around here. I picked him up on this
exit."
The lady scanned him along the back and shoulder. "No chip.
Probably a family pet, and so no one thought to put in a chip. Do you want to leave him
here?"
"What will you do with him?"
"We'll send him to one of the pet rescue groups. If they can't find his
owner, they'll put him out for adoption. If no one takes him, he'll be put
down."
"That would be a shame. He's a nice dog. Well trained. I think I'll
leave my name and number with you, and take the dog. You know what he looks like. If someone calls
looking for him, you can send them to me."
"Do you have room for him?"
"Yes. I have a large enclosed porch where he can stay." Zoey wrote
down her name and phone number on a pad and handed it to the attendant. "I put 'Found Dog' beside
my name."
"Border Collie. Male," the attendant said, and added the words to
the paper. Then she tore off the note and stuck it on a bulletin board on the wall behind her.
Zoey looked at all the notes. There were a lot of them. "All lost
dogs?"
"Dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, birds... you name it. Even a rooster. We
get a lot of missing pets this time of year. Folks get busy with the Christmas holidays and forget to check
their animals. Or they think someone else in the family has done it."
That wouldn't be her, Zoey thought. Her family was still in Idaho.
"Come along, Dog."
"You'd better name him. Do you want a
leash?"
"A name?" Zoey's mind stayed blank. What would she name the
dog?
"Call him Jack. Just something rather than
'Dog.'"
"OK. Jack was my grandfather's name. I can remember that."
"Have you had a dog before?"
"Not recently. But my folks had dogs. There was always one or two
around."
Leashes and collars hung on a rack near the counter. Should she get
one? She might only have this dog for one day. She realized she wanted Jack. He would keep the nights
from being so long. He probably wouldn't sleep out on her porch, after all.
"I'll take a leash and collar." She chose a serviceable-looking set from
the rack and put it on Jack. Sixty dollars. She could afford it, and pulled out her credit
card.
The attendant ran the card and handed it back to her. "There you go.
Don't get too attached. Owners have a habit of showing up out of the woodwork, when you figure they
never will."
"Thanks for the warning." She put the collar and leash on the dog.
"Come on, Jack." The collie followed her to the door and waited while she opened it. "Good dog.
Heel."
Jack positioned himself on her left side and stayed that way out to
the car. She opened the door and he looked at her. "Get in."
Thus invited, he jumped inside. She went around the car and joined
him.
"There is no way I'd let anyone put you down," she told him, giving
him a scratch behind the ears. "Even if you chewed holes in my boots. I'm a sucker for a lost animal.
Besides, you'll make the kids feel at home." And herself less lonely. She didn't say it, but she thought it.
Zoey's biological clock was ticking. She was almost twenty-eight and
had no man interested in her. She had tried gym membership, but couldn't stand the smell. Online
dating seemed too risky. Her work kept her so busy, she really didn't have time for dating. She had spent
her college-age years getting her business going, and hadn't met anyone.
Now she wished she had spent a little time looking around, "husband
hunting," but it had seemed so important to find a place where she could work. She had tried renting a
duplex, where she could live in one side and work in the other, but it wasn't set up the way she wanted
it, and the double rent was just as expensive as a house. So she had bought a new house, built the way
she wanted it.
She felt left behind. As lost as this dog. The eligible men had all
settled down with someone else. She was going to have to make some changes in her life. Schedule
more vacations. Join some clubs. Go out and meet people. Pray about it more
often.
She turned on the windshield wipers and drove home to their rapid
thumping. At top speed they still couldn't keep the windshield clear of the heavy rain. Like everyone else
on the freeway, she slowed down to forty miles an hour.
The dog in the car made a difference. She had made this trip many
times, to and from the airport, but always by herself. Just the presence of a living, breathing being in the
car beside her made a difference. He couldn't talk back to her, but she chatted away to him, happy to
have a companion for the journey.
"Do you know you are both beautiful and intelligent?" she asked
Jack. "I don't expect I'm going to get to keep you very long, not a dog like you. But if your owner is out of
town or somewhere, I wouldn't want you to end up at a shelter and go to someone else. Or get put
down. I'll take care of you. You really are a sweetie. You don't look very old."
In reply, he
steamed up the windows and filled the air with the smell of wet dog, but she was very glad to have
him.
Author Nancy Radke, started out writing full-length, modern
romance and suspense stories, then switched to novella length for her western series, The Traherns, and
now writes both, usually two or three books at the same time. She has published ten Sisters of Spirit
books, including Christmas on Cougar Mountain, thirteen Trahern books, and one book of a new
Brothers of Spirit series. A former special education teacher, her education background shows when she
includes history, or in this case, reading problems, in her books. Her books are G-rated, no sex, no
swearing.
Christmas on Cougar Mountain is EXCLUSIVE to
Christmas Pets & Kisses from October 6 - November 6, so pre-order Christmas Pets & Kisses
today and be the first of your friends to read Christmas on Cougar
Mountain by Nancy Radke
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