The Ramp
the steps to the front door.
Once the door was open, she greeted Dingo by promptly slapping him in the head with her paw (the one that she had been limping on, I might add). She then grabbed a stuffed toy and went running down the hall with Dingo in hot pursuit.
The queen was indeed home again.
I looked down at the heavy, awkward ramp and smiled. OK, maybe I couldn’t give credit for Chelsea’s recovery to a piece of plastic. But perhaps, despite it all, the ramp had in a way opened the door for a night of the kind of freedom she hadn’t had in a long time.
Perhaps it was money well spent, after all.
Rott-N Literature
Watchers by Dean Koontz
OK, when you’re raised by a mother who is addicted to Stephen King, you cannot hope to get away unscathed. I must admit that I have a bit of a taste for the scary books myself, and this is one of my all time favorites. I must add--don’t even think about renting the movie for this one. The only thing the movie has in common with the book is the title.
The plot of the book centers around a retired special forces operative named Travis who discovers an unusually intelligent golden retriever while out hiking. We later discover that the dog, dubbed Einstein, has actually escaped from a military research lab where he has been bred to have human level intelligence. Before long, Travis finds himself on the run, desperately trying to protect this amazing animal from not only the government, but also another escapee, from that same lab, called “The Other.” The Other is a genetically engineered killing machine that is bent upon destroying the dog. For good measure, we also have a demented hit man pursuing Einstein for his own means, too.
Fair warning: this book does have a lot of violence, and its fair share of gore in places, too. But the narrative is addictive and the characters are well drawn. Travis is very believable as a world-weary man. He has lost so many people in his life that he fears growing close to anyone. Through Einstein, he meets and falls in love with Nora, a woman with a traumatic past of her own. You can’t help but feel a bit of pity for The Other as well, who comes across as being misunderstood and the victim of emotional abuse. In fact, his
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