A Happy #Feline Mother's Day--#Cats This Week by Karen Rose Smith

Once a mother...always a mother! Mother's Day made me think back over all of the beautiful moments and memories of Halo's pregnancy, the birthing of her kittens and her role as a mother. Witnessing her giving birth to three beautiful kittens and her devotion as a new mother was an experience I will always treasure. 

Even though Miss Paddington, her first-born kitten that we adopted along with Halo, has grown into a beautiful adult feline, they still share a special bond. The photos below celebrate that bond...one that I hope everyone can share with their own mothers...whether it be in person or through memories of times past.

Happy Mother's Day!  

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Click on the link below to read an additional blog entry by Karen  
every Thursday on the Cozy Chicks blog

Cozy Chicks Blog

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NOW AVAILABLE

Wendy Newcomb, director of the Kismet women's shelter Sunrise Tomorrow, is thrilled when the shelter receives a legacy.  She hires Caprice to decorate the mansion to serve women who need more than an overnight port in a storm. But in her drive against domestic violence, Wendy has made enemies and is murdered. Caprice finds herself in danger once more as she asks questions and even calls on St. Anthony for inspiration to solve this murder mystery.

SHADES OF WRATH on Amazon

SHADES OF WRATH on Barnes and Noble


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USA TODAY Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith is an only child who delved into books at an early age. She learned about kindred spirits from Anne of Green Gables, solved mysteries with Nancy Drew and wished she could have been the rider on The Black Stallion. Yet even though she escaped often into story worlds, she had many aunts, uncles and cousins around her on weekends. Her sense of family and relationships began there. Maybe that's why families are a strong theme in her novels, whether mysteries or romances. This award-winning and bestselling author will have her 100th novel released in 2018.  At present she is working on two mystery series for Kensington Books--Caprice De Luca Home Staging cozies and Daisy's Tea Garden mysteries. From time to time, she also writes romance for Harlequin Special Edition.

Karen and Paddy

Readers often ask her about her pastimes. She has herb, flowers and vegetable gardens that help her relax. In the winter, she cooks and does watercolor paintings rather than gardens.  And year round she spends most of her time with her husband, as well as her four rescued cats who are her constant companions. They chase rainbows from sun catchers, reminding her life isn't all about work, awards and bestseller lists. Everyone needs that rainbow to chase.

Karen looks forward to interacting with readers. They can find her at the links below. 

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Sign Up for Karen's newsletter!

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Karen's Facebook Author Page

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©2017 Karen Rose Smith

A #Mother's Day #Feline Story--Rescuing Halo by Karen Rose Smith

Two years ago on Mother's Day, my husband and I found Halo napping in our yard. We'd never seen her before. She was thin and looked as if she needed care. She didn't run but if she'd been on her own for a while, I knew she wouldn't trust easily. She came and went and we began to feed her. After about a month she took refuge from rain and storms in our open patio sunroom. She was staying and I suspected why. She was pregnant.

Halo in the shrubbery along our patio 

After an emergency visit to a vet--she had a severe case of colitis--we found out for sure. She was pregnant. I'd never seen a cat through a pregnancy. I consulted friends who had, put Halo on a special diet I cooked each day--poached chicken breast, white rice and pumpkin--and fed her every few hours to give her the nutrition she and her babies needed. 

A pregnant Halo

She became healthier and delivered three wonderful kittens--Tia, Mason and Miss Paddington. Halo was devoted to them, watched over them, nursed them, washed them. When they were old enough to escape the storage bin where they were born, she'd call them back to her and they'd come running. The awesome experience of watching her devotion and how her kittens thrived with her care is something my husband and I will never forget.


We found loving forever homes for Tia and Mason. We adopted Halo and Paddy and integrated them with our other two cats.

Halo and Zoie nap together

Paddy and our four-year-old, Zoie Joy, got along from the start. They are now buddies. Halo continued to watch over Paddy when Zoie was around until she finally learned that Zoie is a sweetie too and would never hurt her baby. They even take an occasional nap together.

Paddy is now twenty-one months old and she still cuddles with her mom. Their bond is beautiful to see.

Last summer, Halo scared us with a series of seizures.  After three vet opinions that ranged from a brain tumor to neurological problems, we took the advice of our own vet and had her spayed. Our vet felt because she hadn't been spayed, hormones were running amuck. There is a condition where the pancreas, liver and gall bladder become inflamed and the vega nerve is irritated and causes the seizure. 

In September we had Halo spayed. At the same time, she also had 6 teeth extracted. It was a very rough time for her but she seemed to recover well. However, it was time for her rabies vaccine. About a week afterward, her nose began running. It wouldn't stop and she became sicker. The rabies vaccination had lowered her immune system's ability to fight off infection. The vets believed the infection had come from the dental surgery. The first antibiotics didn't heal her. We had a rhinoscopy performed with a specialist before Christmas. At first the diagnosis was cancer but then the biopsies came back--she had a severely resistant bacterial infection. We thought we'd lose her. But finally, after being on her new third antibiotic for 2 months, the infection turned around.  I'm so happy to say she has gained weight, is alert with clear bright eyes and spurts of playfulness she never exhibited before. She's a happy, well, fur baby now. 

It's been two years since Halo came into our lives. (I believe my mom, who I miss dearly, sent her!) At first Halo seemed reluctant to accept affection but now she realizes she belongs here too. Now besides rubbing against our legs, she cuddles with us when we watch TV.  She and hubby have a special bond and she often curls up in his arms.

The vet told us she believes Halo was in an accident and had a broken leg that somehow healed. I'd love to know her story. But whatever it was, she is safe and loved now. Watching her, I learned more about motherhood. Mothering her and her kittens is an experience I'll cherish always.

Happy Mother's Day!

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WHEN MOM MEETS DAD on Amazon

WHEN MOM MEETS DAD on Barnes and Noble

FINDING MR. RIGHT BOXED SET, Vol. 1 (including WHEN MOM MEETS DAD) on Amazon

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Karen and Paddy

USA TODAY Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith is an only child who delved into books at an early age. She learned about kindred spirits from Anne of Green Gables, solved mysteries with Nancy Drew and wished she could have been the rider on The Black Stallion. Yet even though she escaped often into story worlds, she had many aunts, uncles and cousins around her on weekends. Her sense of family and relationships began there. Maybe that's why families are a strong theme in her novels, whether mysteries or romances. Her 95th novel will be released in 2016.

Readers often ask her about her pastimes. She has herb, flowers and vegetable gardens that help her relax. In the winter, she cooks rather than gardens.  And year round she spends most of her time with her husband, as well as her four rescued cats who are her constant companions. They chase rainbows from sun catchers, reminding her life isn't all about work, awards and bestseller lists. Everyone needs that rainbow to chase.

Karen looks forward to interacting with readers. They can find her at the links below. 

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Karen's Newsletter IN TOUCH

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Karen Rose Smith's romance website 

Karen Rose Smith's mystery website 

Karen's Facebook Author Page

Karen on Twitter

Karen's Cat-Themed Zazzle Store

©2016 Karen Rose Smith

#Reading and #Writing Gifts From My Mom by Karen Rose Smith

                           

My mother was an elementary school teacher for twenty-five years in an inner city school. While she taught in a public school, I attended a Catholic school. Back then I had "Holy Days" off and would go to school with her. There. I helped with her reading groups and often I just listened to children read, I also heard her read to them.

Books were important to my mother. There were seven children in her family. Her parents immigrated here from Italy and considered their children's education a priority for a good life. My grandfather was a barber, yet somehow he managed to send all of his children to college. All three of his daughters became teachers.




Books surrounded me from toddler age. From Golden Books that my mom read to me or with me, I progressed to Nancy Drew, Zane Grey and young adult romances and mysteries. Riding bikes and spending time with friends were important, but a book was never far from my hand.


By reading to me at an early age, my mom taught me the power of words. I learned to listen, not only for the storyline but for the messages about the characters that were implicit in the words. As she read, I studied the accompanying pictures. That taught me to create visual images in my mind whenever I picked up a book, whether it was illustrated or not. I learned I could escape into a story and learn information in a fun way.

Helping my mom in her classroom, seeing her with a book in her hand, listening when she read to me were all bonding experiences...and the basis for my skills and dedication to be a writer today.

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I feel HER SISTER is the perfect Mother's Day book because it's the story of three generations of mothers who understand the indissoluble bond with their child and fight to hold on to it.

HER SISTER on Amazon

HER SISTER on Barnes and Noble

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USA TODAY Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith is an only child who delved into books at an early age. She learned about kindred spirits from Anne of Green Gables, solved mysteries with Nancy Drew and wished she could have been the rider on The Black Stallion. Yet even though she escaped often into story worlds, she had many aunts, uncles and cousins around her on weekends. Her sense of family and relationships began there. Maybe that's why families are a strong theme in her novels, whether mysteries or romances. Her 87th novel will be released in 2015.

Readers often ask her about her pastimes. She has herb, flowers and vegetable gardens that help her relax. In the winter, she cooks rather than gardens. And year round she spends most of her time with her husband, as well as her four rescued cats who are her constant companions. They chase rainbows from sun catchers, reminding her life isn't all about work, awards and bestseller lists. Everyone needs that rainbow to chase.

Karen looks forward to interacting with readers. They can find her at the links below. 

IN TOUCH May 2015 Newsletter

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Karen Rose Smith's romance website 

Karen Rose Smith's mystery website 

Karen's Facebook Author Page

Karen on Twitter

©2015 Karen Rose Smith

Karen Rose Smith's Mother's Day Rafflecopter Giveaway

The month of May brings flowers and Mother's Day and brand new beginnings. I wish all the moms a Happy Mother's Day and a year full of appreciation and love.

From May 1 to May 15, 2015 I'm having a Rafflecopter giveaway for my newsletter subscribers. The prize package includes a bracelet, towel, potholder and signed copy of WANTED: A REAL FAMILY. You can subscribe to my newsletter until May 1, 2015 on the home page of my mystery website (Click here to visit Karen's Mystery Website).  My Mother's Day newsletter will be e-mailed to all subscribers on May 1. Directions and a link to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway will be included in that newsletter.

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WHEN MOM MEETS DAD on Amazon

WHEN MOM MEETS DAD on Barnes and Noble

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USA TODAY Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith is an only child who delved into books at an early age. She learned about kindred spirits from Anne of Green Gables, solved mysteries with Nancy Drew and wished she could have been the rider on The Black Stallion. Yet even though she escaped often into story worlds, she had many aunts, uncles and cousins around her on weekends. Her sense of family and relationships began there. Maybe that's why families are a strong theme in her novels, whether mysteries or romances. Her 87th novel will be released in 2015.

Readers often ask her about her pastimes. She has herb, flowers and vegetable gardens that help her relax. In the winter, she cooks rather than gardens. And year round she spends most of her time with her husband, as well as her four rescued cats who are her constant companions. They chase rainbows from sun catchers, reminding her life isn't all about work, awards and bestseller lists. Everyone needs that rainbow to chase.

Karen looks forward to interacting with readers. They can find her at the links below. 

Karen's Newsletter IN TOUCH

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Karen Rose Smith's romance website 

Karen Rose Smith's mystery website 

Karen's Facebook Author Page

Karen on Twitter

©2015 Karen Rose Smith

#Flowers In Honor Of #Mom by Karen Rose Smith

Mother's Day is a bittersweet holiday for anyone who has lost his or her mother.  Remembrance is so important.  Avoiding loss just brings more of it.  At times, embracing it is the best therapy.  One way I remember my mom and embrace her again, is to plant her favorite flowers in our gardens.  These forget-me-nots which are truly appropriate bloom every year around Mother's Day. They spread their little blue blossoms far and wide and can be transplanted to different locations.  My mom loved them.

When I was a child in elementary school, I often took flowers to my teacher.  (My mom was an elementary school teacher and I know how she appreciated them.)  In May, my mom and I would go to our backyard early before school started and cut a bouquet to take along.  We have a traditional lilac.  But we also planted these reblooming lilacs.  They're gorgeous in spring but will bloom again a few times over the summer.  Remembrance throughout the season.

At my childhood home, we had a small bank near a fence.  Fuchsia and white creeping phlox adorned that bank.  Even though we had a particularly harsh winter in Pennsylvania this year, the creeping phlox are more beautiful than I've ever seen them.

You know how you get that "welcome home" feeling when you see your front yard?  In the spring, fuchsia azaleas bloomed under our dining room and living room windows at my childhood home.  Although azaleas are sometimes have a difficult time wintering, the ones there lasted from the time we moved in until the year I had to sell the house.  We've had trouble growing them where we live now, but we bought two little bushes last year that somehow made it through this winter. They're blooming.

At Easter and Mother's Day, we often gave my mom hyacinths which were one of her favorite flowers.  She loved the scent.  One year as she was growing older and couldn't plant them, she returned one to us to plant in our garden.  Twenty years later, it's still growing.  Hyacinths are one of the first flower signs that a new blooming season is upon us.  This garden which also has her favorite summer flowers--like daisies, roses and zinnias--is my way of feeling closer to her.

May your mother's hand touch yours in some way this Mother's Day.

©2014 Karen Rose Smith

IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH ezine

Karen Rose Smith's romance website 

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Mother's Day Memorial Garden -- How I Remember

Mother's Day is here again.  Spring is rich with memories as well as flowers.  When a mom is gone, the Mother's Day commercials, cards and sentiments are hard to watch.  So for many years, we've tended a Memorial Garden in our yard where lots of my mom's favorite flowers and bushes grow.  We started small at first.  Originally a circular ring surrounded three Canadian Hemlock trees.  We expanded to include spirea bushes which formed a privacy border around the backyard of my childhood home.  In following seasons, I found a statue of a little girl on a bench with a basket for flowers.  We surrounded her with forget-me-nots.  A border of hyacinths bloom with color and fragrance in early spring. 
 

Each year, some aspect of the garden changes.  Bleeding hearts, another of Mom's favorites, have grown tall.  We lost a hemlock and replaced it with an Alaskan cedar.  A yellow rose bush--my mom especially liked yellow roses--produces rose hips and we don't trim it back as much as our other garden roses.  For the past few years, I've been growing flowers from seeds.  In early summer, we plant geraniums I grow and sow zinnia seeds to replace the spring flowers. This year I'm adding Shasta daisies for two reasons. My mom liked them and...  I've named a dog in my second mystery "Shasta" to commemorate that.

Just as life continuously changes, the garden does, too.  Each bush that greens, each flower that sprouts, each blossom that blooms and gives off a glorious scent, brings back memories.  So on Mother's Day, as well as through the summer, I remember and relive a little of my childhood all over again.
 


©2013 Karen Rose Smith



IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH ezine
Karen Rose Smith's romance website
Karen Rose Smith's mystery website

Mother's Day Memorial Garden

Mother's Day is here again.  Spring is rich with memories as well as flowers.  When a mom is gone, the Mother's Day commercials, cards and sentiments are hard to watch.  So for many years, we've tended a Memorial Garden in our yard where lots of my mom's favorite flowers and bushes grow.  We started small at first.  Originally a circular ring surrounded three Canadian Hemlock trees.  We expanded to include spirea bushes which formed a privacy border around the backyard of my childhood home.  In following seasons, I found a statue of a little girl on a bench with a basket for flowers.  We surrounded her with forget-me-nots.  A border of hyacinths bloom with color and fragrance in early spring. 
 

Each year, some aspect of the garden changes.  Bleeding hearts, another of Mom's favorites, have grown tall.  We lost a hemlock and replaced it with an Alaskan cedar.  A yellow rose bush--my mom especially liked yellow roses--produces rose hips and we don't trim it back as much as our other garden roses.  For the past few years, I've been growing flowers from seeds.  In early summer, we plant geraniums I grow and sow zinnia seeds to replace the spring flowers. This year I'm adding Shasta daisies for two reasons. My mom liked them and...  I've named a dog in my second mystery "Shasta" to commemorate that.

Just as life continuously changes, the garden does, too.  Each bush that greens, each flower that sprouts, each blossom that blooms and gives off a glorious scent, brings back memories.  So on Mother's Day, as well as through the summer, I remember and relive a little of my childhood all over again.
 

©2013 Karen Rose Smith



IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH ezine
Karen Rose Smith's romance website
Karen Rose Smith's mystery website

Missing a Mom

I love holidays, and Mother's Day was always one of my favorites.  My mother passed on years ago. Since then, a deep-down ache would begin the week before.  Commercials and sentiments about the day didn't help. When our son moved far away, I decided to handle the holiday differently.  I thought my strategy could help others.

Embrace the day.

I discovered that ignoring missing and an upsurge of grief is denial.  In the end it adds to the heartache.  How do I embrace the holiday now?

The week before I make a picture collage with those photographs that might be stuffed in a closet.  I take the time to remember how much my mom meant to me and I to her.  Or...I have a notebook of short stories my mom wrote when she was in college and some years I excavate those and learn about a younger side of her I didn't know.  Or...I unpack a box in my closet where I store some of her keepsakes, like her wedding album and an account of my parents' travels on their honeymoon.  The memories have become more sweet than bittersweet over the years and now I feel almost joyful as I remember.

But the best way to appreciate the day all over again is to talk to my son and spend time with others I love.  We have friends with children.  Visiting with them, playing games, reveling in the sunshine remind me that I'm a mom, too.  I have love to spread that reaches beyond my family.  I believe this is how my mom would want me to spend the day--living life to the fullest and remembering the love she gave away.

 
©2012 Karen Rose Smith

Karen Rose Smith's website