Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore -Share an Extract – Bubba Tails: From the Puppy Nursery at the Seeing Eye (Tales from King Campbell Book 1) by Patty Fletcher

Welcome to the Cafe and Bookstore. There are still one or two authors who will be sharing extracts from their previous books over the next couple of weeks, but the new series is running in parallel with an opportunity to share an extract from your most recent book. You can find all the details here: Share an Extract

Today Patty Fletcher shares and extract from Bubba Tails:  From the Puppy Nursery at the Seeing Eye (Tales from King Campbell Book 1) as told by her Seeing-Eye dog King Campbell

About the book

NOW INCLUDES ‘WISH OF THE WEE GOLDEN ONE’ A CHRISTMAS STORY. A charming story about Christmas and Santa Paws and how the pups help deliver the Christmas gifts.

In this magical and love-filled tail, King Campbell AKA Bubba travels to the puppy nursery at The Seeing Eye to help ready a group of puppies who are just about to embark on the fabulous journey of learning to become Seeing Eye dogs. Just as he is about to finish his tail, a wee pup becomes very frightened of all that lies ahead, and one frightfully stormy night she runs away! Will King Campbell hear the urgent call from the puppy nursery in time? Will they find her and save her so she can fulfill her destiny?

The use of Tail instead of Tale for story and Magik instead of Magic is intended for these short stories. A great play on words from King Campbell

An Extract from the book

One stormy night a few weeks later King Campbell and his mother had just gone to bed, and just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he heard again the tinkling of dog tags off in the distance. They had an urgent sound to them.

“Something is wrong.” He thought.

So, after making certain his mother was fast asleep, checking the house, King Campbell stretched himself comfortably and once again let himself fade away. As he appeared in the nursery he noticed that there was much confusion and he could smell fear.

“What’s the matter?” He said to one of the mother dogs standing nearest him when he appeared in the room.

“Oh! King Campbell! We have an awful problem!” She howled.

“Why, whatever is wrong?” He said with some alarm.

“Oh! That little pup that snuggled with you last time, you were here! She heard that soon it would be her time to leave her mother and go with her first family and she’s hidden herself someplace and we have looked and looked, but we cannot find her!”

Now, it had been storming when he had left his human mother, and it was storming there as well.

“Well, now, she’s such a wee thing. She can’t have gotten far. We will split up and search the grounds.”

Soon, King Campbell, had all the pups gathered together, along with their mothers, and he gave each of them an assigned place to look. He remembered many things about the nursery and the land around it, and he was ever sure they would find her without much trouble at all. He made sure to keep the wee pup’s mother close to him so she would not be too afraid, and off they went into the storm.

The lightning flashed! The thunder crashed! And how the wind did blow! The rain was falling hard, yet all the dogs and pups looked and looked. Sniffing here, sniffing there. They looked inside and outside too. They sniffed under bushes, and around trees. They looked under furniture in the nursery, and even in toy boxes, closets, and drawers. A bunch of little Labrador pups even tried to look in the food bins, and when they did not find her they decided to stop for a quick snack.

King Campbell chased them out saying, “No! No! She is not in there! You leave! It! Stop that!”
Pretty soon though, they had looked everywhere they could think of and still there was no sign of her. It was getting later and later, the storm was worse than ever, yet still, they had not found her. As King Campbell stood with his head down, trying to think what to do, an idea suddenly came to him. He raised his head and barked very loudly!

“Woolf! Woolf! Woolf!” The room fell still and he said, “Listen! Listen! Everyone! I have an idea! It’s magik, and it just might work! At home when my human mother is missing special people in her life and wishes to draw them to her in some way, she sings a special song. I am going to sing it, and when you think you have the words join me! Now, come on! All gather round! Let us make a circle. All grasp paws! That’s right, come on! All together now! And remember, when you have the words sing.” He began to sing.

“Listen to the bird’s sing.
Listen to the chimes ring.
Listen to King Campbell’s bell ringing.
Listen to the rain fall.
Listen to my heart call.
Listen to King Campbell’s bell ringing.”

Soon all the mothers and pups were singing, but the wee pup’s mother was still crying and had not yet begun to sing. King Campbell turned to her. “You must sing! You must! You must sing and you must believe! Now sing!”

One of the recent reviews for the book

Robbie Cheadle 5.0 out of 5 stars  A lovely book that all ages can read and enjoy  Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2020

Bubba Tails: From the Puppy Nursery at the Seeing Eye is a delightful story for all ages, told from the perspective of King Campbell, an older and more experienced Seeing Eye dog (trained to guide the blind). King Campbell appears at night to the puppies at the Seeing Eye School, and their mothers, and tells them stories about how he came to be selected for the school, his training process and meeting his forever mother. His stories help to allay some of the puppies own concerns and anxieties about the future when they undergo their training to be Seeing Dogs and eventually become companions to a blind person.

This is a most insightful book about how Seeing Dogs are selected, including the qualities they need to have to do this job, as well as the training process they go through before they are matched with a blind person. I say matched because that is exactly what happens, the person is paired with a suitable canine companion. I thought this was very interesting as I had never really thought about how close the relationship between a blind human and their Seeing Dog is prior to reading this book.

The second part of the story when Campbell meets his new forever owner was the most meaningful for me. It was a wonderful experience for me to learn about how the Seeing Dog and their new owner must adapt to working together. The Seeing Dog needs to learn to read their human owner’s body language and respond to subtle signals. The human must also learn to trust their dog and this is quite a difficult thing to do. I can understand that putting your faith in a dog, no matter how much you love it, must initially be difficult when you are unable to see and protect yourself. I loved reading about how this amazing trust developed between Campbell and his owner.

This is a book that everyone can read and enjoy for the story and also appreciate for its detailed insight into the relationship between Seeing Dogs and their owners, and also the world at large.

Read the reviews and  buy the book: Amazon US

And: Amazon UK

Also by Patty Fletcher

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US

And on : Amazon UK

Books also available on: Smashwords

About Patty Lyne Fletcher

I’m a single mother with a beautiful daughter, of whom I am very proud. I have a great son-in-law and five beautiful grandchildren. Three girls, and two boys. I hope to be able to write more about them later. I own and handle a Black Labrador from The Seeing Eye™ named Campbell Lee–a.k.a. Bubba Lee or King Campbell, to give just a couple of his nicknames. King Campbell is now retired and I hope to return to The Seeing Eye in spring of 2020 to obtain a successor guide.

I was born in Kingsport, Tenn., where I also grew up and now live and work.

About my blindness: I was born one and a half months premature. My blindness was caused by my being given too much oxygen in the incubator. I was partially sighted until 1991, at which time I lost my sight due to an infection after cataract surgery and high eye pressure. I used a cane for 31 years before making the change to a guide dog.

Connect to Patty

Blog: Campbell’s World 
Twitter: @Bubbalee04
Facebook: Patty Fletcher

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you will head over to find out more about Patty and her books. Thanks Sally.