The Mystery of the LIttle White Dog

 What a difference a week makes.  The winds stopped and we finally had some rain.  The focus has changed from putting out fires to what comes next for the people who lost their homes.  

I will send back MURDER BY THE BOOK to my editor tomorrow.  I'm already thinking about the next Yarn Retreat Mystery.  

Yesterday, we all went for haircuts.  Jakey went first and while we were waiting for the next person to get theirs done, he was telling me that he was bored.  That's his cue for me to hand over my phone so he can watch stuff on Youtube.  I tried in vain to give him other options like looking out the window and thinking about what he saw.  Finally, I gave him the phone and I looked out the shop window.

Even though he wasn't really paying attention to what I said, I started giving a commentary on what I saw.  There was a whole mystery about a kid who walked past the shop window three times.  He looked about thirteen, had a back pack and was wearing pajama pants (a style that I don't get).  He had a small white dog with him on a leash.  He walked one way with the dog and then back with the dog.  The third time there was no dog.  What happened to the dog?

Jakey didn't even look up, but I was on the lookout when we left the salon parking lot, thinking the kid might have abandoned the little white dog and I was ready to do a rescue, just in case.  It's happened before.  There was a little poodle left on the busy street.  I was so sure he must belong to somebody in one of the shops on Ventura Boulevard and carried him into all of them, hoping to find his owner.  When no owner was found, I took him home.  At the time we already had three dogs and two cats, and couldn't keep him, so I found a home for him where he lived out his life.

We are dogless now and have one cat who thinks she's a person.  She is used to living with other cats and might be okay with a dog.  I was almost disappointed when the little white dog was nowhere to be seen.  Jakey missed the whole thing.  He barely looked up from the phone when we walked through the parking lot to the car.  He probably wouldn't have even noticed if I had found the dog and brought it in the car. 

There were some houses around the corner from the busy street and I'm hoping that the little white dog lived in one of them and the kid took it home and then left.