Celebrating National Puppy Day

It's #NationalPuppyDay to promote the rescue and adoption of pups needing a good home. We're looking into bringing another doxie into our life this autumn, but in the meantime, here's a puppy snippet from The Pirate's Secret Baby in honor of the day:

Mattie was making crooning noises to the little pup as her father talked to her, “And we will bring one of your old shifts, Mattie, and rub it all over Coquette, then put it in the puppy’s bed at our house. It will calm him and he’ll sleep better at night, because it will smell like his mother, but also like you.”
“You have owned puppies, Captain?” Lydia asked.
“I had a terrier once. Samson.”
He turned back to the dog, poking a finger under its chin and the pup jumped and fell over in delight at the new toy.
“What will you call him, Mattie?”
“See the brown patch around his eye, Papa? He looks like a pirate dog. I will call him…” she thought about it, then grinned.
“Jolly Roger! Or just Jolly because he is such a jolly little darling.”
“An excellent name for this ferocious creature, Marauding Mattie.”