One Summer, by JoAnn Ross

Rating:  A,  Warm+

Book 2 in the Shelter Bay series finds us at Cole Douchett’s wedding.  Gabriel St. James, former US Marine and photojournalist is working his way across the US, capturing life on film for a new book.  He stops in Shelter Bay so he can do the photography for buddy Cole’s wedding.  Weddings are not Gabe’s idea of a good time, having been there, done that, only to end in divorce.  Gabe is a huge loner, so he figures marriage is not in the cards for him again.

While shooting pictures of the newlyweds dancing, local veterinarian Charity Tiernan approaches Gabe, who makes it pretty clear he isn’t interested in conversation.  As she walks away, Gabe feels a twinge of regret that he has never felt before, realizing he doesn’t even know her name.  Oh well, he’s got an agenda and plans to stick to it. 

As Gabe is on his way out of town, he stops at a lookout to take pictures, and a van enters the parking lot, throws out a tangled mess of a dog, and drives away.  Gabe picks up the little dog, and realized he needs to get him to a vet to be checked over.  His GPS picked up the nearest vet, so off Gabe goes with the dog, and low and behold who comes to answer the door but Charity.  Charity cares for the dog, who has been abused and Gabe agrees to take him home for the night.  Charity keeps on trying to convince him to adopt the dog, since he’s small and could travel with him.  Whatever the case may be, Charity has decided the dog and Gabe are destined to be soul mates, and is not giving up! 

Charity’s mother Amanda arrives, unannounced.  Their past was not an overly happy one, with Amanda constantly searching for the right husband, and is now on marriage #6 to Benton, a judge.  Seems Benton has taken off to parts unknown, so Amanda wills herself on her daughter.  Strangely enough, Amanda and Charity sort of reach an understanding and hit it off.  Charity actually goes on a date with Gabe, and Amanda sees to it that she dresses nicely for her man.  And what a date it turns out to be….

Gabe is talked in to helping at Camp Rainbow, a camp for foster siblings.  Charity is buying cameras for the campers, and Gabe is going to teach them how to use them.  15 year old Johnny and his sister Angel come to the camp.  They are in separate foster homes, so this is the only time they see each other all year.  Johnny is very protective of his little 8 year old sister, and the two very clearly are close to one another.  Things go well at camp, and both Gabe and Charity fall in love with each other more every day, and they both develop a strong liking to Johnny and Angel.  Well, towards the end of camp their mom returns and torches the cabin they are staying in.  Strange things happen with Angel.  As camp comes to an end, Gabe makes plans to move on. 

By this point, I am on pins and needles, waiting to see what will happen to everyone.  And don’t forget about Amanda and Benton – there’s something in the works there too!

I loved the first book in this series, and this one was even better.  It’s a great love story for not just one, but several couples in the book.  The picturesque town of Shelter Bay has me wanting to travel west to see if it really exists.  And it has dogs too, rescuing being a subject near and dear to my heart.  JoAnn Ross spins a wonderful tale, and I hated to see the book end.   

Major Rant not about books

OK, I know we are a blog about romance books, but I am going to get off topic because of something that happened to me last night. A year ago I started to volunteer for a Labrador rescue service. I have really enjoyed this. I love it when I find a forever home for a loving Lab. What can I say, I love Labs! When I first started doing this I thought I would only be pre-screening people who wanted a dog. We have a list of questions and certain things we look for to make sure you are going to be a good fit for the dog and the dog a good fit for you. I have gotten people upset with me when I turn them down, but we have been doing this for 25 years and have placed close to 400 labs last year. So we must be doing something right. I come to find out that I would also be screening dogs that people need to get rid of. This part of the job has some pros and cons, one of the cons I am going to tell you about.

I got a call at 3:30 AM today from a girl in tears about her parents dog. I guess this dog has some kind of skin issues that have gone way beyond bad. She is calling me at 3:30 to see if I could help her. I told her she needed to get the dog to the emergency animal clinic ASAP. This dog was bleeding and in tons of pain. She had said she had called them and they couldn't help her because she couldn't pay. They let the dog suffer because she couldn't pay. She didn't know what to do and wanted to know if I could help her. Well, at 3:30 AM there was not much I could do. I told her if she couldn't get the dog into the hospital, she needed to get the poor animal to Animal Care and see if they could help her. Even if the dog had to be put down, it would be better then what it was going through. When we hung up she said she would follow up with them in the morning.

She called me back at a more normal hour this morning and thanked me for taking the time to talk with her when she needed someone to talk to. She was going to take the dog to Animal Care today and have it put down. After talking with her parents she has come to the conclusion that her parents NEVER TOOK THIS DOG TO THE VET!! What is with these people??? All I had was visons of was this poor dog last night and I could not get back to sleep. I really wanted to hurt these people, and felt very sorry for the daughter who was stuck in a very hard place, and she lived out of town.

My rant is after doing this for a few months I still can't get over how someone can just get rid of their dog because they don't want it anymore, or how someone could let a dog get as sick as this poor dog where the best result is to put it down. How an Emergency Animal Clinic could say no to a dog that needs help?

I'm glad that even though it was 3:30, I was of some help to this poor girl. I am glad that I am doing this for the dogs, because they really need the help. And I still can shoot the owners of the dog!! I know that if she hadn't called me back to say she was taking the dog in, I was going to call Animal Control with the phone number so they could follow up.

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest!!! And just to let you all know the photo s of my two rescued friends. Can't you tell that they have it made!!

Debra, I'm glad you did what you could do to help. I'm a animal lover and I hate to read stories like this. Dani Debra, bless you for coming to the aid of this poor girl and the dog. I work with a Golden Retriever rescue group, and it truly is heartbreaking to see how some people treat their pets. It makes one wonder how they treat the humans they interact with. Unfortunately, the Emergency Vet does not have to treat an animal unless someone can guarantee payment. The services they provide for an animal cost about the same as when you or I go see the doctor. A dog in this bad of shape could cost thousands. Usually if a rescue group will agree to pay for the services, which they often will, the vet will go ahead and treat the animal. Here the story often makes it to the local papers and press, so donations come in for the treatment of the animal. Our rescue group is lucky in that we have had some huge media cases that have brought in thousands of dollars, so if there is a chance the dog will make it, they will guarantee payment. The dog has to be surrendered to them, and can not go back to the owner. The other sad part of this story is that some people won't surrender the dog. Animal control can take it, the owners can be arrested and fined, but this process doesn't happen without involving the police with animal control. Nothing ever works as quickly as we would like it to, and that does make it hard to work with rescues. Dogs have a very short memory span, so if they can heal and go to a new home they will forget about the past. That's what I have to do (put it in the past) in order to get beyond the hurt humans have caused the pet. My Annie came from a huge puppy mill and I can't think about it or it will do me in. She's a happy girl with a new least on life now!