With last week’s events, chronicled in FISH OUT OF WATER, now safely in the past, I thought it would be good to interview one of the characters to help you learn a little more about what happened. However, everyone is still extremely busy dealing with the aftermath so I could only secure an interview with Daisy. She’s Jonas and Elizabeth Trout’s dog. Since she was in on most of the action, I thought she could bring us a unique perspective on what happened.

“Hi, there. You must be Daisy,” I said, bending over to pet the well-groomed border collie who had come over to greet me.

“Yes, yes, I am. I’m Daisy Trout.” She “spoke” quickly in an excited tone as she sniffed my hand and seemed to smile at me.

“Well, you’re a real cutie, aren’t you?”

“Why thank you. You smell very nice too. Is that coconut soap?” She took one more inhale to confirm.

I knelt down so I’d be on eye level with her. “So I wanted to interview you to learn more about Jonas and Elizabeth—”

“Oh,” she interrupted. “They’re my humans. They’re the best.” She wagged her tail enthusiastically.

“Can you tell me a little about—”

Daisy dashed away before I could finish my question but returned nearly as quickly. “I’m terribly sorry,” she said with a bashful expression on her face. “I thought they were going for a walk. But they’re not.”

I nodded sympathetically at her sad expression. “It’s okay. I understand. So about Jonas and Elizabeth—”

“Oh, they’re the best,” Daisy interjected.

“That’s . . . that’s wonderful,” I said. “I understand you helped them out last week?”

Jiggling from side to side, she answered, “It was nothing. I’m just happy to help. I’m truly, truly happy. I really like it here.”

“Yes, Arkansas can be beautiful.”

“It smells good. But I liked the other places too.”

“What places?” I asked.

“All the other places.” She nodded as if to agree with herself. “Wherever Jonas and Elizabeth take me is great. They’re the best. Oh, excuse me.” She dashed off again.

She returned shortly. “So sorry. They’re too busy right now, but Jonas petted me!” She turned in a tight circle and wagged her tail vigorously, nearly knocking over a picture frame on the side table.

Catching her eye again, I said, “Getting back to our interview, I heard you did something special to help solve the case last week.”

“Oh, everybody’s special. I’m just happy I helped. I am happy here. It’s so much better than being in that shelter.”

“That’s right, you’re a rescue dog, aren’t you?”

“No, I haven’t rescued anybody.” Daisy shook her head.

“I mean Jonas and Elizabeth adopted you from a shelter that specializes in rescuing abused dogs,” I said.

“They’re the best.” Daisy nodded firmly before growing solemn. “I don’t like to talk about before them. It wasn’t very good.” Her mood brightened again. “Now everything is great.”

“Let’s just talk about last week then,” I suggested. “How did you help solve the case?”

“I don’t know. Things just happened.” Daisy appeared to shrug. “I just went for walks and looked around at everything. Same old same old for me. I don’t understand why everyone made a fuss over me. Oh! I went running a lot with Jonas. He likes to run. I do too. It’s super fun.”

Realizing that was probably all I’d get from her, I wrapped things up. “Well, thanks Daisy for sharing your thoughts with our readers today.”

“I’m very glad I could help,” she said. “Can I ask you a question, though?”

“Sure,” I said as I put away my pen and notebook.

“Could you take me for a walk?”

If you’d like to meet Daisy’s owners and learn what actually happened last week with the murder, sleuthing, and secrets, be sure to read FISH OUT OF WATER. It’s the first book in Marc Jedel’s new Ozarks Lake Mystery series. The second book will be titled SWIMMING WITH THE FISHES. Plus, he’s still writing more books in his Silicon Valley Mystery series.