"It's Mysterious to Me," by Lexie

My name is Lexie. I’m a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, the older of two Cavaliers running the house of author Linda O. Johnston. My pack-mate is Mystie, the nutcase who chases sunbeams. Me? I’m more low key, except when I want attention, which is nearly all the time. That’s when I bark to go out, so I can get a treat. Or, I demand to be lifted onto Linda’s lap to help her write or edit.

I wanted to appear here to complain. You see, Linda’s new Pet Rescue Mystery series just debuted this month with BEAGLEMANIA. It’s a spinoff series from the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery series. Both are published by Berkley Prime Crime.

The thing is, I was the star of the Kendra mysteries. Rather, my fictional counterpart, also named Lexie, was the star. The protagonist Kendra Ballantyne lives where our family lives, she’s a lawyer like Linda has been, and Kendra is owned by her tricolor Cavalier Lexie who, not coincidentally, resembles me.

In BEAGLEMANIA, although it’s clear that Lauren loves animals, she doesn’t even have a dog of her own, at least not yet. I’m definitely not the star.

Lauren is the director of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter. She was introduced in HOWL DEADLY, the eighth Kendra mystery, and also appeared in FELINE FATALE, the ninth. She’s pretty cool. She does save a lot of animals, even though, since her stories are also cozy mysteries, people get killed. In fact, I’m told that in the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people!

BEAGLEMANIA begins with a rescue from a puppy mill. I understand that some of Lauren’s later adventures will involve an animal hoarder and a shelter that takes in unadoptable pets.

I have to admit that I like Lauren and what she does. But I’m sorry that I don’t know her well enough to have much of a role in her stories.

Oh, well. Maybe I’ll just relax about it and enjoy some down time. And learn more about pet rescue as Linda does, too. It’s definitely a worthwhile cause. I’ll just take the position with Linda that, since I’m not the star of her new series, she owes me. Big time. Lots of walks and romps in our backyard and treats, and... Hey, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

Please come visit Linda at www.LindaOJohnston.com and at www.KillerHobbies.blogspot.com on Wednesdays. Friend me on Facebook. I’d love to hear what you think of pet rescue--and BEAGLEMANIA!