Check-in Post and Challenge Update

So, I’m a bit late to post this month, everything fell by the wayside on the 26th of March when my furbaby Suki, who you were all introduced to in February went missing. (If you want to skip to the book part scroll down) .I came home from work to find she’d jumped the fence and when she couldn’t get back in the must’ve panicked and run. My poor girl was lost in the bush for 9 days, and if you know the Australian bush, then you’ll know this is a scary concept. Below is a clip of where we were looking for her.

I engaged a service called K9 Welfare Mission which is run by volunteers to help people get their dogs back who are lost in the bush, the lady I worked with was amazing. From advice to support whenever I needed it, she was there. And though her advice went against what I wanted to do and what others were telling me to do, I chose to listen to her, she was after all the expert. I’m so glad I did because I honestly don’t think I’d have gotten Suki back if I hadn’t done everything she asked of me. This involved many cold nights sitting in the bush cooking sausages, setting up food and scent stations and laying my scent trail to hopefully lead her home.

She ran a fair way from home, at least 4.5km south from home and another 4.5 km north, there were 6 days between sightings and I had just about lost hope.

The final night; a brief story: Last night I went out and laid my scent again, I set up the food station with a tiny bit of food. Then I walked from my house with hot sausages, to where I’d left a cushion the week before that she’d found and moved, I sat in the dark for an hour, she came down the hill at one point, stopped when I said hey Suki you coming home, then ran off, but not a full-on run. I sat for another 45 minutes then left a sausage on the pillow, I walked home with the rest of the sausages, where I heated them up at the front of my carport and put the container on the roof of my car. She followed my scents home, 💓💓💓 she’s so clever.

I couldn’t believe it, I was sleeping and heard her cry outside the window. I opened the back door, said hey baby and she ran through the gate and into the house, so excited to see me.

She was so happy to see me, she was covered in ticks, had lost weight and was so tired and I couldn’t stop crying. Happy tears obviously. She got some love, and a bit of food and promptly fell asleep on the couch she’s still sleeping. We’ll go to the vet later after some tick medication.

I couldn’t have done it without them, and without the community behind me.


So, now to the books, I’m a bit behind in some of my reviews, as you can imagine, reading was not my priority, even if my brain had allowed me to concentrate. But I did read a good amount of books up until Suki had her 9 day misadventure. I read 18 books and listened to 2 audiobooks.

This month I didn’t cross anything off of my challenges other than my Goodreads challenge which I am now on 64/150 books for the year. I don’t do TikTok and one of the things to cross off is a book trading on #booktok, so if anyone has a suggestion from there please let me know.

Here’s hoping April is full of reading and no dramas.

New Release Book Review: Home From the Hill by Susanne Bellamy

Screenshot_20200513_213801Home From the Hill is book 4 I the Home to Lark Creek series. This was however, my first visit to Lark Creek, but I’ll be going back and revisiting with the first three books.

I liked this romantic suspense novel, about an older couple who have plenty of baggage behind them, but who are now tentatively taking steps to start again.

I thought Susanne Bellamy did a good job of portraying the PTSD and the claustrophobia that Graham was suffering. I felt quite sad that he’d spent so much of his life alone on the hill. Janice was a good character, and I enjoyed how she found her backbone against her ex-husband as the story progressed, though I wish she’d found it a bit earlier.

I enjoyed Jack, the lawyer, Rick, and the other secondary characters that played important roles in this story. There was plenty of tension created surrounding Janice’s ex and also the markers on the hill and I wondered how it was all going to come together. A really enjoyable read.

FB_IMG_1577105032228#AWW2020   33/50