by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris ~

Life can dole out hard knocks, and sometimes folks get hardened in response.

In “Small Change,” when Marian visits a shelter she learns as much about herself as about the animals, and begins to transform.

ALL PROFITS from sales of “Small Change” go to the animal rescue groups listed below!

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Here’s a taste of “Small Change”:

“I’ve always had big ones,” Marian said. “But those days are over.”

The volunteer glanced up from her clipboard. “Why?”

“Too old.”

“You don’t seem— “

Marian broke in. “Last one was a Rottweiler.” She clenched her teeth to head off tears. “He needed lifting, toward the end. You need to be strong for that. Young. By the time the new one needs that, I’ll be pushing eighty.”

The volunteer nodded.

“And don’t tell me to get an older one, or even a middle-aged one, so that its time will come before I get decrepit, because I’ve done that before, and won’t do it again now, at my age, and go through the whole death thing again in just a few years. Don’t try to steer me. I know what I want.”

Marian could hear herself, and could hear what the volunteer was thinking about her—whoa, what a witch—but she just set her jaw into a harder square.

“Give me something small. Fifteen pounds max. No more than two years old. I don’t care if it sheds. Or if it’s not perfectly behaved. I know how to train.”

Another silent communiqué via the volunteer’s arched eyebrow: I bet you do.

Years ago Marian had been turned down by this same shelter, because she didn’t lie on the adoption application as most people undoubtedly did. She had admitted that her fence was only four feet tall instead of the required six.

Rules were rules. That was understandable. However, the dog she had selected, the one she had spent six hours on three consecutive days visiting, might not have understood why she left him behind.

This time, if they were going to turn her down, she wanted to know upfront.

And here’s another taste:

The first impulsive thing Marian had ever done was marry Brian, lead singer in a band called The Needles, at age eighteen, and that impulse had turned out so poorly that it had also been the last. She sat in her car, waiting for a break in the rain, wondering if something was happening to her. Maybe she really had had a small stroke while caring for Karl, or a heart attack this morning in the laundry room with the shortness of breath and the crying. At her age she was not too young for dementia, either.

Otherwise, why would she be here, back at the shelter?

Inside, she wore her sunglasses and kept the hood of her jacket up, in case she ran into the volunteer from yesterday. She headed straight for the available dogs hall.

The chaos in the kennels made her head spin. Bark after bark banged against her ears. Dogs flung themselves at the bars, yelling all manner of things at her: Let me out! When are my people coming back? Do you have any food? And yelling at each other: If not for these bars I’d kill you! Do you want to play? Hey, are you in heat?

Maybe she should get a cat.

Buy our fun romantic fiction “Small Change” to help us donate more to Ruff & Ready and Last Chance at Life!

ALL PROFITS from sales of “Small Change” go to the following hardworking animal rescue groups!

Ruff & Ready/Center for Animal Protection and Education (CAPE)

Read more about Ruff & Ready.

 Last Chance at Life (LCAL)

Read more about Last Chance at Life 

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HELP US SAVE ANIMALS — just $2 ! Rescue Diva depends on sales of our romantic fiction to help create real-life happy endings like those of Claire, of Noble, Granger, and Raza, and of Rhea and her Earthquake Puppies.

Enjoy a fun read, spice up your life, and help replenish our rescue fund!  🙂

Rescue Diva proudly sponsors needy animals in the U.S. and around the world. For example:

~ We help Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs) in Greece provide free spay/neuter for hundreds of animals per year, which is one of the best ways to prevent the abandonment and misery of puppies like Noah and Kyla.

~ We donate to Center for Animal Protection and Education (CAPE), Praying for Paws, Southern California Siamese Rescue, Aniplant (Cuba) and many other groups.

Profits from our fiction stories are used to rescue animals like Dolly, who was tied to a post and beaten. Click pic for more about Dolly.

~ We do in-the-trenches rescues of angels like Robin, Chance, and Tiger, with help from San Diego Animal Support Foundation, and of Marisol and Lisa, with help from Last Chance at Life.

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Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is a career journalist, author, and editor. Her fiction includes 17 novels for Simon and Schuster, E.P. Dutton, Avon, and other major publishers (under the name Kathryn Makris), as well as a teleplay for CBS-TV, and a short story for The Bark magazine. She has written hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, Animal Issues Reporter.com, and Examiner.com (Animal Policy Examiner).

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press), coming soon in digital format!