The Dog Who Stole Christmas

Being a big deal in a small town ain’t easy. Being a football star in a small Texas town, where football is king, is even tougher.

Boomer (yes, that’s his given name) Kendall has always had a thing for his best friend, Marsh’s little sister. She’s smart, she’s sassy, and she sprinkles F-bombs around like Tinkerbell throwing fairy dust.

Too bad Matilda blames him for everything that’s gone wrong in her life since she was 17 years old. The death of her parents, her brother’s football injuries, and the fact she ended up working as a lunch lady to put herself through college while Boomer got drafted into the NFL and struck it rich.

Needless to say, it’ll take a Christmas miracle to convince Matilda that he isn’t just looking to score, but Boomer’s more than up to the task.

 

In March we had to have one of our cats put to sleep. He was old and sick, and it was his time but that never makes a decision like that easy and we were devastated. He was family. My son’s cat. My son turned 21 in December. Our Hammy was 11.

Losing Hammy left a hole in our house and our hearts, so in July the boy and I headed to the pound and rescued an 18 month old, 50 pound pit bull. I know…what were we thinking?!? But we took one look at her with her big sweets eyes and knew we couldn’t leave her behind. The boy named her Arya (yes after Arya Stark from Game of Thrones), and if you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably seen more photos of her than you want.

A couple weeks after we adopted Arya, I had to run to Kroger and get rawhides because, Lord help us, that dog was chewing on everything. Imagine my surprise when I spotted some dog toys that, um, didn’t exactly look like dog toys.

Despite the hilarity that ensued when I posted the photo of said dog toy on my facebook profile, when I sat down to plot THE DOG WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS I said, “I don’t want Mattie to have a pet.” I’d written pets before and I was taking a pass this time. Except, when you write a story about a, um, dog toy, you kinda have to have dogs…at some point. And a hero. And of course, kissing.