Join Catherine Mann’s Street Team

posted on July 7, 2014 by Catherine Mann

Hey there! Are you interested in becoming a member of the Catherine Mann Street Team? Curious about just what the heck a street team is? If so, here’s the scoop! The street team term came from rock group fans who spread the word to help their favorite groups make bestseller charts. Over time, other types…

My Pup Featured on Vet Tech Blog!

posted on March 26, 2014 by Catherine Mann

My sweet, goofy puppy Faith is famous! Read all about her journey back to health on Vet Tech Rachel’s blog – “My Kid Has Paws” – where Rachel gives pet tips and discusses various pet owner concerns. It’s an awesome blog and well worth your time to peruse at length.  A big thanks to Rachel for sharing about Faith’s battle with…

I am an animal rescuer… (Win $50 donation to charity of your choice!)

posted on March 4, 2014 by Catherine Mann

What is your calling? Your passion? Your cause? Your favorite charity? Share the name of your charity of choice below. Once we have fifty different people commenting on the subject, I will donate $50 to one charity mentioned (randomly chosen) … Contest ends Friday, March 7, 2014.

Soft Kitty …. Warm Kitty …. Grumpy Ball of Fur!

posted on March 3, 2014 by Catherine Mann

Anybody else love that episode on The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon’s sick and he asks for the “Soft Kitty” song? Cracks me up every time I hear it. Even though I often blog about our dogs, we do have a cat as well.  His name is Cooper and he’s an amazingly cool car, but he definitely prefers to…

Buddy – The Dog Who Loved Too Much

posted on February 21, 2014 by Catherine Mann

Meet Buddy, my oldest son’s child – uh, dog! Buddy’s an entertaining pup with an amazing capacity for loving.  Deeply.  If lost, Buddy is the kind of dog that would walk hundreds of miles to find my son. Buddy’s the kind of dog who would – and has – eaten through latticework in my parents’ backyard to get to…

Shelter Me – Video

posted on February 13, 2014 by Catherine Mann

Happy Valentine’s Weekend!! To celebrate the lovers’ holiday, I’m excited to share with you a video showcasing my upcoming novel – SHELTER ME, “A Second Chance Romance” from Berkley Sensation, on sale August 2014.  SHELTER ME has been called reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks’ THE LUCKY ONE with a splash of Marley AND ME.  (I like that!) Someone…

Shelter Me

posted on February 7, 2014 by Catherine Mann

PROLOGUE:

I was born in the land of Babylon.

Thousands of years ago people spoke the same language there, before the Big Master scattered them. Maybe that’s why I understand what humans mean even when they can’t understand each other. Or possibly that’s why they can’t understand me, because they left.

But then perhaps they can’t understand me because I’m a dog.

No. Really. I’m not putting myself down. I’m seriously a D-O-G. Yep, I can spell, too, but I can’t tell people that, either, because . . . Come on, you know the reason. Say it with me. Because I’m a . . .

Dog.

And while I was born in Babylon—a.k.a. Southern Iraq—my life changed forever the day I left that home with Sergeant Mike Kowalski. The morning I went away was tricky, because the Sergeant had to sneak me out of the forward operating base on one of those monster big cargo planes they call a C-17. I was going for the ride to end all rides.

Back then they didn’t have lots of cool puppy rescue organizations to bring dogs back from a war zone. In my day, the Department of Defense law stood more often than not. No pets on military installations. And bringing them home? Huge negative on that.

So rules were bent, twisted and broken to rescue me, but it was a must-do operation to complete my mission. To understand my mission fully, you need to know how I ended up with Sergeant Kowalski.

Back when I ran in a pack with my cousins, we scavenged for scraps. Best place to look? U.S. military installations. The guys in uniforms, the ones from across the ocean, fed us. Good stuff, too. So we howled out the locale of new troops setting up camp so our pack buddies would know.
I hit the mother lode with those guys.

“No MREs for you, Trooper. You get steak,” said a colonel with silver hair, dusty camos and creaky knees.

The first time I ate steak, I almost peed myself. Of course I peed myself for a lot of reasons in those days because I was still a puppy. Six months old then. Twelve months old when I left that place. Eleven years old now.

During my puppy days, the rest of my pack didn’t want to stay at that particular camp because it was busy and big, and they were ancient and wary. But I was the youngest, the only one of my litter to survive, and gut-deep hungry from only scraps of leftovers. I was way below being the alpha dog. Not even really a beta dog. More like a lowercase zeta.

After we ate our fill for a week, it was a tough choice sticking around by myself, because yeah, I would lose my pack, but hunger won out. Six months later when the time came to leave on that plane? I didn’t hesitate for a second. Sure I would miss this place where they tossed a tennis ball and seemed to think I was a rock star because I figured out fast they wanted me to bring it back. Like that was hard after tracking rats in the desert for dinner?

But I knew it was time to leave Babylon. Southern Iraq. Home.

I had a mission. That was what the Sergeant told me. I was needed. Magic words to a dog. We live for a job, a purpose. It’s what we were created for by the Big Master.

My mission: to heal a family, the family that had lost their person over here. I was supposed to be their link to him because he was the one who found me. The silver-haired Army colonel who fed me steak…

PAWsome New Website Design! Bk Giveaway!

posted on February 7, 2014 by Catherine Mann

My life is delightfully full of four legged companions, whether they’re my pets or pups I’m fostering for my local Humane Society. My books also tend to be as populated with animals as my house is, thus the inspiration for my new website! My goal for this year is to blog more frequently, so do…

One Good Cowboy

posted on January 11, 2014 by Catherine Mann

…”What are you doing?”

“You said you didn’t want to talk.” Sure he knew they weren’t really going to have sex on his desk, but he reveled in the regret in her eyes that she couldn’t hide in spite of her scowl.

“You’re being outrageous.”

“Good.”

“Stop. Now,” she said firmly.

Okay, he’d pushed her far enough for today, but he could see that while their love for each other might have burned out, their passion still had plenty of fire.

He buttoned his shirt again and tucked in the tails. “Spoilsport.”

She brushed papers into a stack. “The pilot’s waiting.”

“Damn waste of an empty desk,” he said with a smile…