A loving dog rescued a tiny stray kitten by coaxing it into following her home during pouring rain.
Monica Burks couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her dog, Hazel, helping out the squeaking kitten during the heavy downpour.
Monica, 48, peered outdoors after Hazel, 3, did not come back from her “restroom” break and instead kept drawing attention to a faint cry underneath their shed.
Hazel persisted, staying out in the rain until Monica, from Abilene, Texas, was met by a surprise: her dog trotting down the driveway, the squealing kitten in tow.
Pic from Monica Burks / tt-creative.com – (Pictured: Monica Burks’ dog Hazel rescues a stranded kitten) – A loving dog rescued a tiny stray kitten by coaxing it into following her home during pouring rain. Monica Burks couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her dog, Hazel, helping out the squeaking kitten during the heavy downpour. Monica, 48, peered outdoors after Hazel, 3, did not come back from her “restroom” break and instead kept drawing attention to a faint cry underneath their shed. Hazel persisted, staying out in the rain until Monica, from Abilene, Texas, was met by a surprise: her dog trotting down the driveway, the squealing kitten in tow. Each time the kitten stopped, Hazel – a mixture between a Yorkie, Chihuahua and poodle – encouraged her along and waited for her. And when the kitten couldn’t make it up the step into the warm, dry home, Hazel even picked it up in her mouth and carried the cat inside. The moment took place on September 30, and since then Monica has named the kitten Sheba and given it to her brother, Michael, to look after. – EMAIL licensing@tt-creative.com
Each time the kitten stopped, Hazel – a mixture between a Yorkie, Chihuahua and poodle – encouraged her along and waited for her.
And when the kitten couldn’t make it up the step into the warm, dry home, Hazel even picked it up in her mouth and carried the cat inside.
-Scroll down to see emotional video below-
The moment took place on September 30, and since then Monica has named the kitten Sheba and given it to her brother, Michael, to look after.
Monica said: “That’s love, pure love – I saw the motherly instinct come out in her.
Pic from Monica Burks / tt-creative.com – (Pictured: Monica Burks’ dog Hazel rescues a stranded kitten) – A loving dog rescued a tiny stray kitten by coaxing it into following her home during pouring rain. Monica Burks couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her dog, Hazel, helping out the squeaking kitten during the heavy downpour. Monica, 48, peered outdoors after Hazel, 3, did not come back from her “restroom” break and instead kept drawing attention to a faint cry underneath their shed. Hazel persisted, staying out in the rain until Monica, from Abilene, Texas, was met by a surprise: her dog trotting down the driveway, the squealing kitten in tow. Each time the kitten stopped, Hazel – a mixture between a Yorkie, Chihuahua and poodle – encouraged her along and waited for her. And when the kitten couldn’t make it up the step into the warm, dry home, Hazel even picked it up in her mouth and carried the cat inside. The moment took place on September 30, and since then Monica has named the kitten Sheba and given it to her brother, Michael, to look after. – EMAIL licensing@tt-creative.com
“Sheba is a feisty loving little thing, she was no bigger than my hand when Hazel found her.
“I want people to know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on an animal, there are so many dogs and cats that need to be rescued or adopted.
“My daughter and I rescued Hazel and her brother at five weeks because their momma rejected them.
“They have given me so much joy and laughter, I think maybe they rescued me.”
381 pages Zondervan publisher February 7,2023 publish date
About The Book
During the most difficult season of her life, how could she know whether their meeting was a gift from God—or another temptation?
Maisy never expected that a Plain girl like her could have her heart stolen by an Englisch boy. But when her rumspringa ends and Maisy realizes she’s pregnant, the reality of their choices—and their differences—sets in.
Maisy knows she will never leave her faith to marry her baby’s father. But she also knows the road to acceptance as an unwed mother in an Amish community will be long and hard. To protect her family from the scandal, she goes to live with her cousin in Haven, Kansas, where she will have some solitude to figure out what kind of future she might have.
In Haven Maisy begins to find her way—thanks in no small part to Joshua Lapp, a Plain man who’s made it clear he isn’t bothered by her situation or ashamed to be seen with her, despite the bishop’s warnings. But Joshua has struggled with his faith ever since the death of his twin brother, leaving Maisy to wonder: How can two people who are so lost ever help each other discover Gott’s plans for their future?
I really have enjoyed every Kelly Irvin book I’ve read and this one has been no exception. The author has a way with words, penning such a realistic book. There are some very tough subjects dealt with here. It’s not a light easy read, it’s actually a rather emotional one.
A young plain woman, a young plain man and an Amish couple all have things they are dealing with, things that are not easy at all. Through God’s love, redemption, forgiveness and lots of talking it out they are able to get through.
Sometimes the way that is the best way is not the easiest way. This is a clean Amish romance and the third book in the Amish Blessings series but can be read as a stand-alone.
I found this to be an emotionally story written full of acceptance, hope, redemption, love, faith and finally accepting God’s forgiveness.
Pub Date: 07 Feb 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
The Series
God always had a plan. But how could falling in love with an Englischer be God’s plan for one young Amish woman?
Young Cassie Weaver only wants what is expected of an Amish woman: a good Amish husband and a large family. But she’s happy as Job and Dinah Keim’s housekeeper, helping Dinah, who is losing her sight due to diabetes. For two decades the Keims have prayed for the salvation of their two children who left the community in a cloud of shame and mystery.
Mason knew there was more to his mother’s past than she let on, but nothing could have prepared him for learning about his Amish roots upon his mother’s sudden death. Even more surprising, his mother named her Amish parents, Job and Dinah, as guardians to her five children. Now Mason has to trust that this couple, and their pretty housekeeper, can take care of his younger siblings, even when all he wants is to take care of them himself.
As the children adjust to this new lifestyle, Mason finds himself pulled back to the Keims’ home. Yes, he wants to see his siblings, but it’s the conversations with Cassie that keep him coming back for more. Is there more to this Amish faith and how does it play into his own past? Cassie guards against her growing feelings for Mason, because there can be no happy ending for a Plain girl in love with an Englisch man . . . right?
Bestselling and award-winning Amish romance novelist Kelly Irvin is back with a heartwarming tale of the power of love to heal all wounds.
The Author
Best-selling novelist Kelly Irvin’s latest Amish romance, The Warmth of Sunshine, debuted in July. The second novel in the Amish Blessings series takes place in Yoder and Haven, Kansas. The series takes a look at adoption in Amish communities. The first book, Love’s Dwelling, won second place in the Selah Awards contest in the long contemporary romance category. The series follows the Amish of Sky Country series, which featured Amish communities in Northwest Montana affected by wildfires that destroyed thousands of acres in the state in recent years. The first book, Mountains of Grace, debuted in August 2019, and delves into the impact on not only an Amish man and woman, but also a smoke jumper, a sheriff’s deputy, and a young English woman forced to confront her past because of the fires.
Kelly also writes romantic suspense novels. Her most recent forays into this genre include Trust Me, Her Every Move and Closer Than She Knows, all set in San Antonio and South Texas. Publishers Weekly says of Closer Than She Knows, “this brisk, smoothly written thriller from Irvin pits court reporter Teagan O’Rourke, a murder mystery lover, against a cunning and vicious serial killer. Fans of serial killer fiction with a Christian slant will be satisfied.”
Of Tell Her No Lies, The Library Journal says, “Irvin creates a complex web with enough twists and turns to keep even the most savvy romantic suspense readers guessing until the end. Known for her Amish novels, this two-time Carol Award finalist shows that her talents span subgenres from tranquil Amish stories to rapidly paced breathless suspense.”
Kelly is also the author of the Every Amish Season series, which included four books that chronicle the lives of Amish widows who are in different seasons in their lives. These women are linked by life altering experiences that bring them together as wives, mothers, and grandmothers in the small town of Jamesport, Mo. The first book, Upon a Spring Breeze, received critical acclaim from the Library Journal: “A moving and compelling tale about the power of grace and forgiveness that reminds us how we become strongest in our most broken moments.”
Kelly Irvin is also the author of The Amish of Bee County series, which includes the critically acclaimed The Beekeeper’s Son. Publishers Weekly called the first book in the series a beautifully woven masterpiece and Romantic Times Magazine called Kelly a storyteller extraordinaire. It was followed by The Bishop’s Son and The Saddle Maker’s Son, which is an ECPA bestseller.
A two-time ACFW Carol finalist, Kelly’s novellas have been included in numerous anthologies, including An Amish Summer, The Amish Christmas Gift, An Amish Market, an Amish Christmas Love, and Amish Quilt, An Amish Reunion, An Amish Picnic, and An Amish Christmas Bakery.
She also penned the Bliss Creek Amish series and the New Hope Amish series, both published by Harvest House Publishers. Love Still Stands, the first book in the New Hope series, debuted in September 2012, and the follow-up, Love Redeemed, released March 1, 2014. The final book in the series, set in Branson, MO., was A Plain Love Song, released in July 2014.
The Bliss Creek Amish series, set in Kansas, includes To Love and to Cherish, A Heart Made New, and Love’s Journey Home.
In the New Hope series, familiar characters from Bliss Creek move to Missouri to start a new district and a new life.
The Kansas native is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the ACFW San Antonio local chapter Alamo City Christian Fiction Writers, as well as Sisters in Crime.
A graduate of the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, Kelly wrote nonfiction professionally for thirty years. She studied for three semesters at the University of Costa Rica, learning the Spanish language. As a journalist, she worked six years in the border towns of Laredo and El Paso, where she was exposed to culture and language that serves as fodder for her fiction writing. She has written hard news, features, entertainment pieces, restaurant critiques, editorials, and weekly columns. Writing awards include the Silver Star Award from the Texas Mental Health Association for articles pertaining to mental health and numerous awards in news, feature, and editorial writing from the Texas Press Association and Texas Press Women.
Kelly retired in 2016 from her position of 22 years as public relations manager for the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, where her duties included writing and designing an employee newsletter, writing news releases, collaborating on marketing campaigns, coordinating ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings, coordinating press conferences, updating the web site, and acting as a media spokesperson.
Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for more than 30 years, and they have two young adult children and three grandchildren. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories, read books by her favorite authors, and visit the babies.
320 pages St. Martins Press January 31,2023 publish date
About The Book
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.
It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.
When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts”: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it’s not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils―and rewards―of putting her heart on the line.
Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George’s Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.
My Thoughts
“……… it’s easy to conflare being well-liked with being well-loved. There’s a misconception to be well-loved, the love has to come from multiple sources, when truthfully, one or two people can love you with the strength of ten.”
Maame means woman or little mother in Twi. She received this nickname as a child. This nickname has been okay, but she now feels the weight of it suffocating her and she has been going by Maddie. The caretaker of her father she was forced to grow up fast. Her brother is busy with his life and doesn’t have time for their father. Living in London she is the daughter of Ghanaian immigrant parents. Her mother who is frequently gone, living in Ghana helping her brother run a hostel. Her mother is usually gone for a year at a time or more and Maddie has had to be the responsible one, forced to be mature and raise herself. Their family is private, and she has no one to speak with about her cares and concerns. As her father’s health deteriorates, he depends on her more and they become closer in a way they had not been when he was well. She must suppress a lot including depression and anxiety. She feels like she is being held back socially as she has always put others needs ahead of her own. Thrilled when her mother returns home she is ready to take charge and live her life including getting her own flat and starting to seriously date. Maddie experiences many first and starts to come into her own. The author handles grief, loss and racism in a way that will make you want to examine the way you handle these. This book vividly brings to life the culture and ideals of the mother land. Heartbreaking and healing this book is emotional and poignant. There are a lot of tough subjects that the author deals with in a respectful way.
Pub Date 31 Jan 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
Jessica George was born and raised in London to Ghanaian parents and studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield. After working at a literary agency and a theatre, she landed a job in the editorial department of a publishing house. She now lives in south west London with an incontrovertible sweet tooth and the knowledge that she can consume half a cake by herself if left to her own devices. Jessica’s debut novel, Maame, will be published as a lead hardback in 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and by St Martin’s Press in the US.
Thank you for visiting today. May your day be fufilling.
320 pages Berkley Publisher Publication Date May 10, 2022
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.
When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Be still my beating heart. What took me so long to read this book, it’s her debut book as well. As young teens a young girl and her family spend summers at the beach in their cottage where she meets two teen brothers. The book is told in alternating time periods between today’s time period when they are all adults and back when they were teens. It’s a friends to lovers kind of romance. All three are friends but she gravitates to one of the brothers and over their teenage years it gradually changes from best friends spending summers together to more as they get into older teenage years. The author reels you in and you care about the characters, you are rooting for them. It’s an awakening of senses, a vulnerability, a coming alive and coming into your own. This summer romance has turned into so much more. It’s smooth sailing and you don’t see it coming then you get gut punched! No, it couldn’t have possibly happened! There’s no forgiveness! You start to slightly recover and please, please, NO ! You can’t believe what you’re reading. It’s just not possible. The author just brought the story to life!
Pub Date 10 May 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
Carley Fortune is the New York Times and #1 Globe and Mail bestselling author of EVERY SUMMER AFTER. Her second book, MEET ME AT THE LAKE, comes out May 2, 2023. It’s a breathtaking love story about two strangers who come together when they need each other most. Once, in their early twenties, and again a decade later.
Carley is an award-winning journalist and worked as an editor at some of Canada’s top publications, including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Toronto Life, and The Grid. She was most recently the Executive Editor of Refinery29 Canada.
Carley spent her young life in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and in Barry’s Bay, a tiny lakeside town in rural Ontario and the setting for EVERY SUMMER AFTER.
EVERY SUMMER AFTER was an instant international bestseller and Carley’s debut novel.
Carley lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons. Follow her on Instagram @carleyfortune.
Thank you for stopping in today. Stay safe and warm.
274 pages Canelo Escape Publisher Feb 02,2023 Publish Date
About The Book
When her best friend’s wedding venue catches fire, Lizzie Martin is on the case to find somewhere new. By some miracle, a space opens up at Halesmere House, and it makes perfect sense to move the event to the Lake District artists’ residence. But Lizzie has painful memories of Halesmere…
And when she bumps into Cal, her first love, she is forced to confront the past. Now a sought-after blacksmith, Cal has his own studio at Halesmere and the two must find a way to get along if this wedding isn’t going to be a complete disaster.
It soon becomes apparent that their attraction hasn’t waned, but can Lizzie put their shared past behind her and learn to trust the man who left her once before?
An emotional and heartwarming romance for fans of Phillipa Ashley, Heidi Swain and Sue Moorcroft.
Wedding Days at Halesmere House is the second book in the Love in the Lakes series. We are back at Halesmere House in beautiful Cumbria with its beautiful gardens, the best hiking trails and unforgettable scenery for your photographs. After a fire leaves the original venue unusable, events planner and maid-of-honour Lizzie Martin is thrilled her best friend Gemma has chosen Halesmere House as her wedding place. With the charming community in full support and guests coming and going, Halesmere House has really taken off as the happening place for events. Lizzie is thrilled for her friend Gemma and her upcoming nuptials, but she has painful memories of a lost love a lifetime ago it seems. When she was eighteen, she fell for Cal a bartender at an event at Halesmere House. She thought their love would last a lifetime, but he disappeared just leaving behind his claddagh ring for her with no explanation or apology. She’s never forgotten or forgiven and is devastated to see him again after all this time at the Lake District artists’ residence. If only those old feelings hadn’t cropped up again. Will she forgive and forget allowing him to explain? Cal has never felt worthy of Lizzie and her family, a drifter and having no family to call his own how can he feel worthy of Lizzie’s loving family? Looking for his family is his biggest dream and why he’s back in the area. Will he get his happily ever after with Lizzie or find what his heart been yearning for? Warm, realistic, a true picker upper book. You won’t want to miss this dose of happiness.
Publishes 02 Feb 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
The Series
Welcome to Halesmere House, where romance might be just around the corner…
After years of living in the past, Ella is ready to start building a future. The perfect opportunity presents itself when she is offered a short-term role at Halesmere House in the Lake District, and tasked with kick-starting its artists’ residence. She can’t wait to start and explore a new career in an inspiring location.
But when Ella arrives at Halesmere, she wonders if she’s made a huge mistake after she clashes with Max, the new owner. Max has his own reasons to be unsettled by her presence, but despite his misgivings it seems everyone else loves having Ella around. As a single dad, it’s his children’s attachment to her that bothers him most. Who will pick up the pieces when Ella leaves?
What Max doesn’t know is that Ella is falling for more than just the Lake District and the community around her. Can her temporary job lead to a permanent happy ending?
A tender and uplifting Christmas romance for fans of Heidi Swain, Karen Swan and Sue Moorcroft.
About The Author
Suzanne writes contemporary and uplifting fiction with a vibrant sense of setting and community connecting the lives of her characters. A horticulturist who lives with her family in Lancashire, her books are inspired by a love of landscape, romance and rural life.
Her first novel in the Thorndale series, The Cottage of New Beginnings, was a contender for the 2021 RNA Joan Hessayon Award and she is currently writing the Love in the Lakes series for Canelo. Suzanne is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and the Society of Authors.
Vegan Book Blogger 