Ruffly Speaking

DON’T MISS ANY OF SUSAN CONANT’S IRRESISTIBLE DOG LOVER’S MYSTERIES

GONE TO THE DOGS

BLOODLINES

RUFFLY

SPEAKING

BLACK RIBBON

AND COMING SOON IN PAPERBACK FROM BANTAM BOOKS

STUD RITES

THE CRITICS LOVE SUSAN CONANT’S DOG LOVER’S MYSTERIES!

“CONANT MIGHT BE THE DOG LOVER’S ANSWER TO LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN’S
THE CAT WHO
SERIES.”

—Rocky Mountain News

“TOSS MS. CONANT A BISCUIT. IF THERE’S A CLASS CALLED ‘DOG MYSTERIES,’ SHE’S GOT A BEST OF BREED.”

—Rendezvous

“COME. SIT. STAY.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“PUREBRED ENTERTAINMENT.WITH PAPERS.”

—
Clarion-Ledger,
Jackson

“IF YOU’VE SUSPECTED MYSTERIES ARE GOING TO THE DOGS, SUSAN CONANT’S LATEST COULD WELL CONFIRM THAT THEORY.”

—Greenwich Time/Stamford Advocate

“THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THE DOG-LOVER WITH EVERYTHING.”

—The Globe and Mail,
Toronto

“PAWS FOR A MOMENT, IF YOU LIKE DOGS.”

—Cox News Service

RUFFLY SPEAKING
“A REAL TAIL-WAGGER.”

—The Washington Post

“YOU’D BETTER GO FETCH THIS.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A FINE READ, A STORY THAT IS AS FASCINATING FOR ITS DOG LORE AS FOR ITS MYSTERY PLOT.”

—Romantic Times

“Ms. Conant has the ability to make her characters (both canine and human) come alive.”

—Mystery News

BLOODLINES
“Conant’s dog-centered mystery is LIVELY, FUNNY, AND ABSOLUTE PREMIUM.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“IF YOU’RE A ‘DOG PERSON’... THIS BOOK IS DEFINITELY FOR YOU.”

—Rendezvous

“Susan Conant gives new meaning to the phrase ‘sniffing out clues.’ ”

—Dog Fancy
magazine

“HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR LOVERS OF DOGS, PEOPLE, AND ALL-AROUND GOOD STORYTELLING!”

—Mystery News

“Engrossing... unique!”

—Mystery Forum

GONE TO THE DOGS

“AN ABSOLUTELY FIRST-RATE MYSTERY... and a fascinating look at the world of dogs... I loved it.”

—Diane Mott Davidson, author of

The Cereal Murders
and
The Last Suppers

“Conant’s dogs are real, true, and recognizable. BOTH DOG AND MYSTERY LOVERS KNOW A CHAMPION WHEN THEY SEE ONE.
GONE TO THE DOGS
DEFINITELY WINS BEST OF BREED.”

—Carolyn G. Hart, award-winning author of
Dead Man’s Island

“Conant infuses her writing with a healthy dose of humor about Holly’s Fido-loving friends and other Cambridge clichés; the target of her considerable wit clearly emerges as human nature.”

—Publishers Weekly

“AN ENJOYABLE READ FOR ANIMAL LOVERS OF ALL KINDS.”

—Mystery Lovers Bookshop News

“Holly Winter is a friendly, funny, salty, boundlessly enthusiastic guide to the noble and nefarious in the world of dogs. And the dogs are real enough to pat!”

—P. M. Carlson, author of
Bad Blood

ALSO BY SUSAN CONANT

*Bloodlines

*Gone to the Dogs

Paws Before Dying

A Bite of Death

Dead and Doggone

A New Leash on Death

*Black Ribbon

* Available from Bantam Books

Coming soon in paperback from Bantam Books:

Stud Rites

All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

RUFFLY SPEAKING

A
Bantam Book
/
published in association with Doubleday

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Doubleday hardcover edition
/
April 1994

Bantam paperback edition
/
November 1994

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1994 by Susan Conant.

Cover art copyright
©
1994 by Daniel Craig.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-11380.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieved system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information address: Bantam Books.

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

ISBN 0-553-29484'9

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

P R I N T E D  I N  T H E  U N I T E D  S T A T E S  O F  A M E R I C A

OPM 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6

To Wendy Willhauck

in memory of

her beloved companion, the miracle dog,

Ch. FROSTFIELD SWEET HONCHO

(1976-1989)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The wonderful people and spectacular dogs of NEADS, the New England Assistance Dog Service, Princeton, Massachusetts, helped me in researching the background of this book. Thanks, too, to Joel Woolfson, D.V.M., for clear answers to my veterinary questions and superb care of my dogs.

Many thanks to my fellow members of the New England and the Charles River dog training clubs, especially to those masters of praise and correction, Geoff Stem and Roseanne Mandel. I am also grateful to Bernard, mascot of Alaskan Malamute Rescue of South Texas, who bounded right into this book, and to Susan Cloer, who cheerfully leaped in with her dog. Thanks, too, to my perfect editor, Kate Miciak. Huzzah!

Frostfield Arctic Natasha, C.D., T.T., C.G.C., V.C.C., my first Alaskan malamute,
prima inter pares,
soul mate and godsend, died on March 31, 1993. Her grieving young nephew, Frostfield Firestar’s Kobuk, who hitched himself to my sorrow, pulled as only a malamute can. I am grateful for his strength and graced by his life. He loved her, too.

The world of goodness is filled with fleas.

—dictum of Chogyam Trungpa, called
—
Rinpoche, meaning “precious one”

1

 If I come right out and ask whether you’ve been grabbed by evil-eyed aliens, whisked aboard their spacecraft, and subjected to grueling medical tests, you’re going to say no, aren’t you? Even if you remember every terrifying detail of the whole nasty business, you’re probably too embarrassed to say so because you’re afraid that people will think you’re crazy. Besides, UFO experts agree that practically all abductees are left with only fragmentary memories of the horrid little gray-skinned medics who prodded and poked them and stabbed them with needles. No wonder people forget. Earthling doctors are bad enough; a gynecologist from outer space doesn’t bear remembering.