Years ago, while I was still working on the reservation, I was given a mostly German shepherd mutt which my husband named Scratch. &nbsp;When we moved to Pe Ell, Washington, in 1973, the dog came with us or, rather, came after us, flying in a homemade crate in luggage when my brother flew up to Seattle. &nbsp;My daughter&#039;s first word was &quot;gogs&quot; which is Tohono O&#039;odham for dog. &nbsp;And her first whole sentence &quot;Scratchy chased the deer,&quot; happened when she looked out the window and saw our German shepherd herding a herd of deer through the yard. &nbsp;Did I say we lived in a somewhat rural setting?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Shortly thereafter, my then husband went to a nearby tavern and came home with one of the denizens he found there who had agreed to do some work in our yard. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Scratch barked at him. &nbsp;Not just when the guy first showed up, but all day long. &nbsp;Most of the time when a new person comes into its&#039; territory, a family dog will let everybody know that there&#039;s a newcomer around. &nbsp;But after a while they get over it. &nbsp;As far as that guy in our yard was concerned, however, Scratch didn&#039;t get over it. &nbsp;He barked so hard and so long that he almost lost his voice. &nbsp;The next day, a neighbor, Sophie, said to me, &quot;Wasn&#039;t that so-and-so I saw working in your yard yesterday?&quot; &nbsp;When I told her yes, she said, &quot;Did you know he just got out of prison for child molestation?&quot; &nbsp;No, I didn&#039;t, but obviously Scratch did. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(By the way, when we moved back to Arizona from Pe Ell, Scratch and our once feral tabby cat, Alex, started out from Portland, again in the homemade crate, in the luggage compartment of a plane bound for Tucson, this time with a friend rather than with my brother. &nbsp;By the time the milk-run flight landed in Eugene, both Alex and Scratch were loose in the luggage compartment. &nbsp;They completed the flight in brand new fiber glass crates, landing in Tucson where my parents rescued them from the plane and took them to Bisbee to await our arrival. &nbsp;It&#039;s a one hundred mile drive from Tucson to Bisbee. &nbsp;Scratch made that whole trip sitting in the back seat with his chin resting firmly on my mother&#039;s shoulder. &nbsp;When we showed up, he was happy to see us, but he wasn&#039;t our dog anymore. &nbsp;My mother had rescued him from that plane, and he was hers from then on.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fast forward several decades. &nbsp;Bill and I were in Venice on a Rick Steves&rsquo; Europe Through the Back Door adventure. &nbsp;We went to dinner by ourselves at a small restaurant away from the canals. &nbsp;While we were eating, we saw a white dog wandering the neighborhood. &nbsp;He seemed to know everybody and everybody knew him. &nbsp;Halfway through dinner, however, a man and a woman came walking down the street, and that previously peaceful and mannerly dog began barking. &nbsp;Like crazy. &nbsp;And he followed the couple, still barking, until they walked out of earshot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I write murder mysteries. &nbsp;With that previous experience with Scratch in my head, I was then and still am convinced there was something seriously amiss with the guy we saw that night. &nbsp;I was inspired to write a short story, Signore Bianco. &nbsp;I believe the story was published in an anthology somewhere along the way, but I can&#039;t remember where or when. &nbsp;If you&#039;re interested in reading it, you can access it through a website that carries all my short stories, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ipulp.com/&quot;&gt;iPulp.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fast forward again. &nbsp;Here we are on another book tour with our book tour purse dog, a long-haired miniature dachshund named Bella. &nbsp;For the past two weeks, Bella has interacted with several thousand people, sitting up front with me while I do presentations and then offering individual greetings to fans while I sit at a table signing books. &nbsp;That&#039;s a lot of people, and during all those appearances she has never said a cross word. &nbsp;(She&#039;s a very tired puppy, however, and is contentedly sleeping in her bed as I write this.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yesterday, after two appearances and two hundred miles of driving, we checked into the Ritz Carlton here in Phoenix. &nbsp;Bella was on a leash and walking with me as we came into the lobby. &nbsp;As we went past, a long-haired sort of &quot;off&quot; looking guy with a back-pack reached down and tried to pet her. &nbsp;Bella barked and growled and turned a complete summersault in the air. &nbsp;I dragged her on up to the front desk. &nbsp;When I started to apologize to the clerk she said, &quot;No. &nbsp;Your dog is right. &nbsp;There&#039;s something wrong with that guy!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Earlier this week, when security people have tried to keep Bella from walking into places with &quot;No Dogs Allowed&quot; signs clearly on display, they have asked me if she is a &quot;working dog.&quot; &nbsp;I&#039;ve said, &quot;She&#039;s part of the show.&quot; &nbsp;Now, however, I can give them another answer. &nbsp;Bella may be tiny, but don&#039;t try to tell her that. &nbsp;In her heart she knows she&#039;s a guard dog, working the security detail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the old days, the first essay assignment once school started was to report on &quot;What I Did During Summer Vacation.&quot; &nbsp;So here are a few things I learned on the Betrayal of Trust book tour.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;ve learned that driving three hundred miles in one day and doing two events is too much. &nbsp;Note to myself: &nbsp;Remind the publicity people in New York that Arizona and Washington are both BIG STATES!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just because they have canceled summer in Seattle this year, doesn&#039;t mean summer is canceled anywhere else. &nbsp;Eating dinner outside at a Mexican restaurant when the temperature was still 108 was HOT, and I&#039;m not talking about spicy hot! &nbsp;And it may have been a &quot;dry heat,&quot; but it didn&#039;t much feel like it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bella got busted by TSA. &nbsp;And deservedly so. &nbsp;We bought two paring knives--two knives for four dollars--in Tucson to cut up Bella&#039;s dog food. &nbsp;Forgot to move them from Bella&#039;s carry-on to our checked luggage on our way home. &nbsp;So two paring knives now belong to TSA. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I met a lady in Seattle who tells me that my book of poetry, After the Fire, is her favorite book of all time. &nbsp;That&#039;s the same way I feel about C. Day-Lewis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I met a woman in Scottsdale who has read all four of the Walker Family books in the last SEVEN DAYS and now wants to know when she can expect another one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I wrote the first Walker book, I told my agent I wanted to make the desert and the Desert People &quot;understandable to the little old lady in upstate New York.&quot; &nbsp;It turns out that worked. &nbsp;I now have a fan in NYC, originally from Rochester, who after reading the Walker books is ready to come to Tucson to learn more about them. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A couple from Seattle, who first learned about the Night Blooming Cereus in Queen of the Night, were in Tucson this July and happened to see a notice in the paper about the Bloom Night celebration at Tohono Chul Park. &nbsp;They went. &nbsp;And even though a monsoon extinguished the luminarias, they were able to see the blooms by flashlight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#039;ve heard from plenty of readers, many of them male, who have enjoyed watching J.P. Beaumont age as they aged. They feel like they have a lot in common with this fictional character. &nbsp;Knowing I&#039;ve managed to craft a connection between the real world and the fictional one makes me feel good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But most of all, I&#039;m glad to be home. &nbsp;So is Bill, and so is Bella, even if I have to wear a sweater.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would imagine Dorothy and Toto felt the same way when they finally made it back to Kansas.&lt;br /&gt;