Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Shooter’

Oops!

Yesterday was National Puppy Day and we missed it? Good grief. So here’s Chet and the puppy Shooter making one of his first appearances in the Chet and Bernie series (from Scents and Sensibility).

We came back much more slowly, Shooter and I side by side, our tongues possibly hanging out the slightest bit. It’s also possible we had thorns of some sort in our coats – I was pretty sure I did – and Shooter had learned a hard lesson or two involving javelinas and those pesky tusks of theirs. But most of all we were filled with the feeling you get from a job well done, although what the actual job had been wasn’t super clear to me. Something about a Slim Jim? That seemed right. As we climbed over the crest of the last rise and came to our back gate – mine and Bernie’s – I wondered about the chances of another Slim Jim real soon. Pretty good, right? I could think of no reason why not.

By Request

As I maybe mentioned already, I’d once seen the aquifer, a tiny puddle way down at the bottom of a construction site. That gave me an idea – one of my very best! – and the next thing I knew I was digging. Not that casual sort of front paws digging, but all-out all-paws digging, pedal to the metal. Digging didn’t even describe what I was up to. This was excavating! I was excavating this – flower-bed, was it? – to get down to the aquifer, no matter how deep. Hard work, sure, but all for Charlie, so I loved doing it. Well, I already loved doing it, but because of Charlie I loved it even more! I was so full of love that when I happened to glance over and notice Shooter at my side, excavating away at full blast, enormous clods of earth flying high into the sky – what a fine digger he turned out to be! – I didn’t mind a bit. The truth was at that moment I loved him, too. What a world! We dug and dug, digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the –

Leda has this scream, so piercing it’s hard to believe a human can do it. I hadn’t heard that scream in a nice, long time, but I thought I sort of heard it now.

(from Heart of Barkness, the new Chet and Bernie novel)

Random Amazon Review We Like

What’s In A Name?

Mrs. Publicist: Well, we’re a bit past the fifteenth of the month, but since we’re here, how about another episode of What’s In A Name – where Spence discusses a character name from the Chet and Bernie series. Can we do Shooter, Spence? Some readers asked.

Spencer Quinn: Why not? The moment Chet heard she-barking in DOG ON IT, Shooter’s existence was determined, even if I didn’t know it at the time. But grasping these possibilities is the novelist’s job.

Mrs. P: So at the end of DOG ON IT, when Chet jumps the gate at the back of their place on Mesquite Road … ?

SQ: Exactly. Although we don’t actually see the resulting puppy and learn his name until book 4, THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Shooter finally plays a big role in book 8, SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY.

Mrs. P: Those scenes where Chet is held captive and Shooter –

SQ: No spoilers! As for the name, you know I (along with C&B) like country music. The late Waylon Jennings, a great country singer and a member of the outlaw faction (along with Willie and Merle), named his son Shooter. I liked that outlaw part – the fact that it’s an in-your-face type of name. The character was all laid out for me right there.

Mrs. P: Thanks, Spence. See you June 15 for another episode of What’s In A Name!