Sheltie Gazette: Back to your regularly scheduled puppy programming!
Mar 27, 2026 8:01 pm
I've got puppies and books for you, !
I hope you enjoyed the bonus story about Bob the Cat — sent in installments like we're all in Victorian England and you are picking up your newspaper to read the latest installment of Charles Dickens. 📰
I know we've gotten behind on our regular news, so scroll down for some March-is-almost-over special book deals, and then scroll down for the puppy pictures! Meanwhile, how are you doing?
We've been sick. Remember that really bad winter right after people came back after Covid? I think this is the worst it's been since then. Our family has had something like three major bugs in the last five weeks — and they linger forever — so as soon as we're getting better, we go down with the next thing. It's not good for creative work, because first of all my brain has been fuzzy all the time, and secondly I've got kids home a lot.
But in more exciting news...
It's also college-announcement season. Those of you who have been around for a while remember that this time last year, I was touring colleges with my older son. We got in the applications (since he's homeschooled, I do all the school and counselor parts), and now we're hearing back.
The details are entirely his to share, but it's been an emotional roller-coaster. There are some big yesses from some unexpected places, some disappointing noes, and some really hard decisions ahead. He's considering moving very far away, which is scary.
Also, did you know the schools send welcome packages? Now you can judge a college not only by its school colors (who wants to wear black and orange for the next four years, ew), but also the quality of the winter accessories it sends you. A couple of scarves were fairly decent. The blindingly yellow hat? Not a winner.
What was important to you about the college you chose? How did you guide your kids through the hard parts?
When we visited Connecticut College last spring, they had an animal education program visiting the dorms as stress release for midterms week. The whole tour stopped to admire the wallabies and hedgehogs and....whatever this is. You'll be pleased to know my son got a merit scholarship to the school with the fuzzy creatures.
Now for some fun books...
Kobo readers! Do you need a cozy read to get you through cold and flu season? Here's a bunch of cozy books, all included with your Kobo+ membership.
Not yet in Kobo+? If you're a heavy reader, especially with indie books, it's a great deal. As many books as you want for under $10 a month. Of course, they have to be the ones included in the program, but as you can see from the graphics, there's a bunch of good ones!
Looking for some new romantasy?
Here's a group of fr*e romantasy downloads, from cozy through dragons and stars. I'll warn you though — there's an excerpt of The Little White Cat & the Dog Who Wasn't on here, but I don't super recommend it to you all. I put this up a couple months ago so it's a less-updated version, and you've gotten better excerpts in this newsletter.
Meanwhile, in Sheltie news
We've gotten these modular dog puzzles, where a human can hide treats and food and the dog has to open knobs and flip switches and do a Rubric cube sort of thing to find them. The Shelties LOVE them. Love love loveity love them.
Unfortunately from a human perspective, they also solve all the many complicated switches and doors in about 3.41 seconds flat. It takes longer to fill the puzzles than it takes the dogs to empty them!
Our current morning breakfast routine and impatient doggies!
Malin practicing his "wait." I can't embed video in this newsletter, but click the picture to go to the video on my Instagram.
It's hard to get good pictures while the dogs are leaping and snarfing and puzzling as fast as possible, but here's a couple cute ones while they've been snuggling.
Malin and Adare really are best buddies
Inish snuggles with me, instead.
Adare doing his best impression of a rug.
