Today, I am thrilled to welcome Cassiel Knight and her book The Death Skull. Cassie has written a heart-warming post about her darling pets that I just love and I know you will enjoy it, too. She will also be generously giving away a $10 gift card to a lucky commenter exclusively on my blog. If we get more than 10 comments from different readers, I will match her gift. So there will be a chance for you to win one of two giftcards! Be sure to include your email addy in your comment so we can contact you if you win. Read on, and thank you for dropping by!
TENS LIST - GUEST POST
Ten Reasons Why I Love My Shih Tzus
On the day I wrote this post, I was sitting in my reclining chair, on my day off, after I was woken by my dogs at my regular get-up-for-work time, not the I’m-on-my-day-off time. I should be annoyed, right? I mean, I had a hard time sleeping so having to get up at the regular time should have started my day off wrong.
It didn’t.
One of the reasons it didn’t, came up to me and pressed her little furry face into mine and cuddled--rubbing her cheeks against my cheeks and nuzzling. How does anyone stay annoyed at that?
So I decided I’d talk about the ten reasons I love my four female Shih Tzus. I’ve had two others in the last 10 years I miss dearly and will share a bit about them as they are still in my heart. I hope you enjoy.
1) The number one reason is I can leave the house for 5 minutes and when I walk in, I get the same joyful attention of jumping paws, wagging tails and happy faces as I do when I’ve been gone for hours.
2) All my girls have an instinct for knowing when I need them and will come up and snuggle or cuddle to make me all better.
3) Each one of them has their own unique personality that gives me a full range of enjoyment. The rest of my tens will, I hope, show you why they are my loves.
4) Abby Lynn (11) is my queen. My husband believes she would have liked to be an only child as she never seems happier than just being with her family (and I don’t mean her sisters). Abby is my BFF--has been from the moment I brought her home from the Oregon Coast. She’s a prima donna but when I ask if she
loves mommy, she will put her forehead against mine. She doesn’t do that for daddy--it’s our special thing. I’m amazed at how she knows that’s our thing. Abby has expectations of how her life should go and has no problems making sure we do what she needs. One of the cutest things she does is “pick” on my husband. Oh yes, she picks on him in a lot of ways but the most obvious is on the couch. My husband will be sitting on one side of the couch and Abby will either be on the floor demanding he pay attention to her or simply waiting nearby but the minute he gets up from his seat, she will take it. Each and every time. The first time I saw her do that, I busted my gut laughing. It got to be that when she’d do that, he’d come back and stand there his hands on his hips. She’ll roll to her side and wiggle the tip of her tail. Tell me she doesn’t know what she’s doing. 5) Chloe Ann (4) is my sweet girl. We kind of rescued her from an uncertain future in a home that took care of their dogs but it was entirely likely she would have had puppies before she was out of being a puppy. Chloe is also the first one who actually loves to sleep curled up beside me and even as I write this, she’s laying between my legs on the recliner, her head resting on my leg. She loves her neck being “gnawed” on and OMG, does she love to run. After she does her duty when I get home from work, she will run to me with the happiest face and jumps into my arms so I get kisses and cuddles. And she has the happiest, enthusiastic tail wag I’ve ever seen. That is my sweet girl.
6) Pixi Noelle (1.5) is my brat, devil child, problem child and is six pounds of pure ornery. She’s a mini or imperial Shih Tzu and I got her ‘cause she was tiny. When I met her, picked her out of the litter, she seemed rather calm so I thought I was getting an easy going girl. That is not what
I got. She is a bundle of energy always looking for trouble wrapped in a bitty package with a sweet face that challenges you to yell at her. She is my cuddler and will come up and cuddle with me just because. Or, sometimes, when I ask her to--she knows just what to do. She’s the one who woke me up this morning and with the cuddle I got, I couldn’t be mad at her. She makes me laugh, she’s always looking for new ways to play and adores Chloe--the only dog who plays with her. Their antics provide hours of entertainment, and they make me laugh just when I need to the most.7) Gracie Mae (16.5) is my long time desire to adopt a senior dog from a shelter and provide a home for the dogs remaining life. I fell in love with Gracie the minute I met her. Even though she is nearly blind and nearly deaf, she is also a sweet girl. She’s smart, and when I pick her up to take her outside, I just want to squeeze her to me. I’m glad I can give her a nice home to live out her life. I know I will lose her within in the next couple of years and it will hurt but I can already tell the joy I’ll get from having her in our lives. I look forward to the first time she gives me a kiss.
8) Keiki “Plainhaven Gold Dust” (his registered name) (18 when he passed away) was the first Shih Tzu I owned. My husband and I bought him in Hawaii from a pet store--the only time we’ve done that. I thought I was getting a Lhasa Apsa but ended up with a Shih Tzu and I haven’t looked back. Keiki was also smart and fun and he also loved to cuddle with Mommy. He was so easy going, nothing fazed him. He was like a first child where Mommy and Daddy learn how to handle the child so his earlier time with us was rougher than the others (Daddy wasn’t a huge fan of dogs then--you should see him now <grin>). To this day, I miss Keiki terribly and am glad I took lots of pictures of him.
9) Ginger‘n Noelle (17 when she passed) was, in one word, amazing. Her loss left a huge hole in my heart but even more so in Daddy’s. From the moment we brought her home, she was more my husband’s dog than mine but it didn’t matter. When she was a puppy, he would call her Ginger Girl and she’d come bounding up to wherever he sat, jump onto his shoulders or the back of the couch and lick his ears--for years. We have no idea why but it was adorable. She loved to play with Keiki, and I have some great pictures of them doing that. Oh and she loved, loved the beach.She would curl up on my lap but she was never really a cuddler for me--she cuddled with Daddy. One of the funniest things she did with her daddy (she had him so trained) was come up to him and flip over to get her belly rubbed--she could stay there for hours. The funny thing was she had him so trained he would be rubbing her belly before he realized he’d been doing it for a while. It was adorable. I have her ashes in a cute little box in my office where I can have her with me forever. I miss her sweet face so much even though it’s been 2 years.
10) All of my dogs over the past nearly 20 years have brought so much joy to my life, I know I’m happier and more enriched because of it. I don’t have children; my dogs are my children in every way. I know some people don’t understand that but it’s okay. My girls and I are perfectly content experiencing a relationship people without pets will probably never really understand.
If you have a pet, what is the number one joy they give to you? Everyone who responds to my question will get entered into a special drawing of a $10.00 gift card from Amazon just from this website (which, by the way, is a favorite of mine). Tell me your stories--I’d love to hear them.
BOOK INFO
Title: The Death Skull
Series:Relic Defender # 2
Author: Cassiel Knight
Published:May 6th, 2014
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Word Count: 87,000
Genre:Paranormal Romance
Content Warning: Adult content, minor blood/gore
Recommended Age:18+
Synopsis:Fallen angel Marisol Asheni Fell when she unwisely chose to follow Lucifer. Unlike many of her fellow angels, she has no desire for redemption. Instead, she prefers fighting the followers of the Dark when they step over the line. Except, in the deepest part of her soul, she longs for a reason to stop fighting.
Jackson’s only loyalty is to himself and his mother, but even he has boundaries he won’t cross. When his last job threatened the life of a young woman, he tossed aside the lucrative pay, and finds himself fighting evil. He’s attracted to Mari despite her hard, seemingly emotionless edge. And while Mari finds the tall human reluctantly appealing, she has no intention of finding herself in a relationship with a human.
Brought together by the Archangel Michael, they must find and destroy the crystal Mayan Death Skull before the son of Lucifer uses the skull to destroy the world’s leaders and throw the world into chaos to begin Hell on Earth.
Their search for the Death Skull takes them from Chicago to Central America to the lost city of Lubaantun in Belize, the heart of the Mayan civilization, and into a battle for their souls.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Excerpt from The Death Skull (Relic Defender #2) by Cassiel Knight:
Jackson leaned against the gymnasium door. He flexed his right knee, which was still sore and tender from his near-death slide down a mountain a couple of weeks ago. Once off the slopes and in the hillside city of Nagarkot, he’d been pronounced fine by the local doctor. The little joyride down the mountainside had left Jackson with a banged up kneecap and strained and bruised neck and shoulder muscles. Not much more severe than the normal scrapes and cuts he’d gotten over the last six months since he’d turned over a new leaf and joined a band of do-gooders to save the world.
How had his life changed so fast from the neatly roped-and-tied, orderly affair to the messy, knotted circle it had become? Six months for a complete turnaround was fast for a man who had been perfectly content as an unscrupulous mercenary working for the rich and powerful.
Especially the rich.
Now, instead of traveling the world to work for men willing to part with their ill- gotten money, he lived in a goddamn huge mansion with an angel who turned down Heaven, an ex-exotic dancer with a sassy mouth and a destiny to save mankind, a shape- shifting rock with aspirations to be a 1920s mobster, a cocky tech expert and—
Her.
The woman currently kicking the crap out of the poor punching bag. Correction. Not a woman. Fallen angel. Demon, actually.
Christ. Jackson swept a hand through his hair. When he found trouble, he went all the way. Said woman, Marisol Asheni—a flowery name for a hard-ass demon—struck the bag, the force of her blow rocking the heavy sack violently. He half expected the damn thing to crash to the floor.
Even as she pounded the hell out of the bag, her body flowed in lovely symmetry. Much like the woman herself, each of her movements was precise, effortless and made with minimum motions. And a helluva lot of grace.
Her taut ass flexed and smoothed under the formfitting tight shorts women—God love them—seemed to favor. Long legs, tanned and straight, looked silky under the soft lights. Her waist was bare, and when she moved he thought he caught a glimpse of something flashing at her navel.
Holy hell, the woman had a belly-button piercing. When had she gotten the damn thing? He sure hadn’t noticed it the last time he’d seen her work out. His appreciative gaze tracked a path up her body, flowing past her curved hips to her uptilted breasts, up the smooth column of her throat. Despite her features being too austere for true beauty and marred only slightly by the iron determination in her square chin, she possessed a wildness he found fascinating.
Her auburn hair, woven into a tight braid, swayed back and forth as she moved. The glowing strands flickered with fire—filled with gold, rich coppers and hot reds.
Any adjective used to describe fire fit Marisol Asheni to a T. As in trouble.
About the Author:
In the job that pays the mortgage and allows her to indulge in her real passion, writing, Cassiel Knight works in the beautiful state of Oregon. Crazy-passionate about the romance writing industry, Cassiel has a paranormal romance series featuring fallen angels and demons from Samhain Publishing, an urban fantasy through Lyrical Press and a Egyptian mythology/archeology series with Champagne Book Group. She writes paranormal romances with kick-assitude that blend archeology and mythology – just a few of her favorite things.
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Giveaway Details:
There is a tour wide giveaway. Prizes include the following:
- $25 Amazon Gift Card
Giveaway is International.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Also, don't forget to comment about how your pet brings you happiness to be eligible to win a special $10 gift card! 10 or more unique commenters and I will match the prize with another $10 gift card! be sure to include your email addy so we can contact you if you win the random drawing.
