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    Kitty Christmas Caper: Short Stories
    Kitty Christmas Caper: Short Stories
    Kitty Christmas Caper: Short Stories
    Ebook51 pages44 minutes

    Kitty Christmas Caper: Short Stories

    By Jacqueline Vick

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    About this ebook

    A Frankie Chandler, Pet Psychic short story. It's Frankie's first Christmas in Arizona, and holiday cheer is proving evasive. She misses her family, she misses snow, and with best friend Penny taking part in a production of "Scrooge", she's forced to attend rehearsals to offer morale support. When she finds an abandoned kitten on the doorstep of U Behave, her animal behavior business, Frankie reluctantly uses her psychic abilities to peek inside Kitty's head. A mistake. Were those noises and screams the result of a horrible accident? Or murder? It's an uphill battle to find the young kitten's mother and discover the terrible fate of her pet parents.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClassical Reads
    Release dateDec 1, 2012
    ISBN9781945403033
    Kitty Christmas Caper: Short Stories
    Author

    Jacqueline Vick

    Jacqueline Vick writes mysteries that include farcical situations and satirical humor. She writes about characters who are reluctant to accept their greatest (and often embarrassing) gifts. She is the author of THE FRANKIE CHANDLER PET PSYCHIC MYSTERIES about a woman who, after faking her psychic abilities for years, discovers animals can communicate with her. The series evolved out of her desperate attempts to train a rescued mutt with fear-based aggression. Two visits with animal communicators inspired the article Calling All Canine Clairvoyants for Fido Friendly Magazine, and, later, Frankie Chandler. Her second series, THE HARLOW BROTHER MYSTERIES, features brothers Edward and Nicholas Harlow. Edward, a former college linebacker, now ghost writes the Aunt Civility etiquette books. Nicholas is his secretary and general dogsbody. Her first mystery, Family Matters, was a semifinalist in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition. Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Future Mystery Anthology Magazine and The Best of Everyday Fiction Two Anthology. Her Harlow Brothers novella, Lovely As, was a finalist for the Black Orchid Novella Contest.

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      Book preview

      Kitty Christmas Caper - Jacqueline Vick

      Kitty Christmas Caper

      Jacqueline Vick

      Classical Reads

      Kitty Christmas Caper

      by Jacqueline Vick 

      Copyright 2012, Jacqueline Vick

      ISBN: 978-1-945403-03-3

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Vellum flower icon Created with Vellum

      Contents

      Kitty Christmas Caper

      About the Author

      Kitty Christmas Caper

      I flicked on the light switch and held my breath with the hopes that two rows of cheap multi-colored lights could turn the barren, colorless interior of U Behave, my animal behavior business, into a cheery Christmas wonderland. It wasn't happening, at least not for me.

      Oh, Frances, cooed my best friend Penny, better known as she-who-is-perennially-cheerful. Doesn't it remind you of home?  Penny is one of the few people who gets away with calling me Frances. To everyone else, I'm Frankie.

      By home, I assumed she meant Wisconsin where we grew up rather than Arizona, where we lived now. Arizona didn't have a Christmas season. As proof, on the other side of the windowpane, a pink, flowering bush provided a resting place for a contented bird. Not a hungry, shivering, freezing bird. A decidedly happy, warm bird.

      "Considering that Wisconsin is under three feet of snow right now, no. Arizona is nothing like home.  If this were home, I said, pointing to the floor inside the entrance, there would be a soppy mat and the tile would be dirty and wet from people stomping the snow from their feet."

      Then you should be happy you don't have to mop every five seconds.  Penny took in the glow of lights and sighed a happy sigh. Then she grabbed a handful of tinsel and a sprig of holly and headed for the entrance.

      Her happiness routine didn't stand a chance against my holiday depression.  My shop looks like squatters have tried to decorate an abandoned warehouse.

      Penny nestled the holly into the tinsel over the door, and after stepping back to review her touches, she added another piece of tape. You're exaggerating, as usual.

      She stepped behind the counter with me to get the full effect. This looks like Christmas.

      I dug my heels in. Christmas looks like pine trees and gingerbread men and Uncle Tim dressed up in a Santa suit that stopped fitting him fifty pounds ago. Christmas looks like roast turkey and cheese sticks and a punch bowl filled with enough grog to drop a platoon of soldiers.

      Penny put an arm around my shoulder and squeezed. Believe me, I know how hard it is the first year away from family, but it's time to start your own traditions here in Wolf Creek. And this, she swept her arm to include my pitiful display, is a nice start.

      You're just happy because The Prickly Pear looks amazing. 

      This morning, we'd met at Penny's bistro, which connects to U Behave through my back door.  When she'd taken over an old bakery, there had been an extra room with a separate entrance they had used to sell their day-old goods. She rented me the space (for free) because she insisted clients would only take me seriously if I had a walk-in storefront.

      Usually, The Prickly Pear popped with colors from the namesake cactus—sweet yellows, hot pinks, and warm purples. This morning, the restaurant touted an old-fashioned Christmas. Felt bows in deep red decorated the end of each booth like church pews reserved for a wedding.  Silver bells hung from the light fixtures, large bulbs glowed warm in red, green and orange from the edge of the counter where the customers paid, and around

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