Aleksa Baxter - Halloween at the Baker Valley Barkery & Cafe: A Nosy Newfie Holiday Short

Nosy Newfie Cozy Mysteries

A Dead Man and Doggie Delights

A Crazy Cat Lady and Canine Crunchies

A Buried Body and Barkery Bites

A Missing Mom and Mutt Munchies

A Sabotaged Celebration and Salmon Snaps

A Poisoned Past and Puppermints

Nosy Newfie Holiday Shorts

Halloween at the Baker Valley Barkery & Cafe

Halloween at the Baker Valley Barkery and Cafe

Aleksa Baxter

Halloween at the Baker Valley Barkery & Cafe

Chapter One

It was early afternoon on a gorgeous late fall day in the Colorado mountains. Fancymy three-year-old Newfoundlandwas sound asleep in her cubby behind the barkery counter (you read that right, barkery, as in bakery for dogs), her legs thrust towards the ceiling as she happily snored away.

I was all alone. It was Jamie's day off and our shop assistant had already left for the day. I wasn't expecting any more customers, so I cranked the music up as I wiped down the tables and belted out how there's no one like me right along with Taylor Swift.

I can't sing to save my life, but I honestly, truly did not care. Just like I didn't care that I was cleaningsomething I normally hate to do. Because, well, I was hopelessly, pathetically in love. It was a horrible feeling, all giddy and gooey and happy. But in that moment, filled to the brim with thoughts of Matt, a/k/a Officer Handsome Distraction a/k/a Mine, I didn't care that I was infected with some sort of brain-eating insanity that stole all my self-respect.

All I cared about was the fact that I, bitter, jaded, crazy person that I was had found a boyfriend that I really, really liked. That thought alone made me crinkle my nose, smile, and add an extra little bootie shake as I wiped down the last table in the corner, my blonde braid whipping back and forth as I really got into it.

Life was good. Life was very good.

Sure, there were some changes coming, including the fact that we were going to have to close down the barkery soon so that it could be replaced with a top-notch luxury pet resort catering to not only dogs but cats and probably geckos, too. But that was okay.

I was almost excited about it. Me and luxury don't exactly go hand in hand, so that scared me some. But I'd still get to run a business with my best friend, Jamie. And with her fianc Mason and with Greta, my newest friend and a woman who had one of the most colorful pasts I've ever encountered.

Also

And this was maybe the best of all. I'd get to keep designing fun new dog treats but I wouldn't have to work the counter and be "on" all the time.

Not that I'd been having a problem with that lately, because I had a boyfriend (!) and it made me all giddy, happy, friendly. It was a very odd feeling. Like an out of body experience, really. But that had to end at some point. You can't stay on a love high forever.

Which meant eventually I'd be very happy for that pet resort and my new role as Chief Treat Developer even if it would probably be best for the business to keep me locked away in a dark backroom somewhere.

But that was in the future.

In the present it was time to work on my plans for the first (and only) Halloween Pet Parade at the Baker Valley Barkery and Caf. I figured if we were tearing the place down we should go out with a bang. So our last day of business was going to be the Saturday before Halloween and we were going to have a big, huge costume party for pets and people.

Which meant figuring out what to make Fancy.

Not the easiest of tasks. You see all these dogs in these cute little costumes and you think, "Oh, I love that. I could totally do that with my dog." And then you try it on your hundred-and-forty-pound dog and it doesn't really turn out so well.

I once bought Fancy those little snow booties to protect her feet when she was a puppy because we lived in an apartment and they put that awful deicer stuff all over the sidewalks and I didn't want her to get it on her paws. Yeah, that lasted about five minutes.

She tore one off with her mouth, kept shaking her feet to get the front ones off, and wouldn't even let me near her to get the fourth one on, all the time giving me one of those looks that asked "Why would you do this to me? What have I done to deserve this sort of torture?"

So nothing on the feet. Which ruled out the cute little bowtie and cuff set I'd found.

The Halloween before I'd tried one of those bee costumes on her, the type that come with a little hat and wings that attach around the back. She was okay with it for a minute or twolong enough to get a cute picture. But then

No.

She kept spinning in circles trying to get the wings off her back. And clawing at her head to remove the hat. It took all I had to get her calmed down enough to get the outfit off of her.

And don't even get me started on the Santa hat

Of course, it did make noises and turn psychedelic colors if you pushed the little white ball at the tip so I really can't blame her on that one. She did actually tolerate it. She just looked so miserable the whole time I felt like the worst dog parent on the planet.

It seemed I'd have to get my fill of clever dog costumes from my clientele.

But I so wanted to make Fancy into a loofa. Or an Energizer Bunny. Or a teddy bear. Or a panda.

(I really wanted to make her a panda)

Seriously, I needed to stay off Pinterest.

But they had such cute pictures. It made me want to have like ten Newfoundlands instead of one. And then I could dress them all up for a Mad Hatter-style tea party with funky little hats and giant-sized tea cups with dog biscuits on little colorful plates and

Yeah, I know. I was losing it. Love, I tell ya. Fries the circuits.

But, hey, at least I wasn't as bad as the woman I knew who dressed her dogs up as a bride and groom and had them get married. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you yourself have done so. Not even if you sent out embossed invitations, hired the best caterer in the county, and had a swing band perform at the reception.

You are perfectly normal. No one is judging you. Really. Truly. I swear.

(Okay, so I'm not a good liar. Whatever.)

Anyway. I needed to figure out a costume for Fancy. But first I wanted to figure out a new treat to give out at the party, because of course a pet Halloween party has to have trick or treating.

We already had our staples: Doggie Delights, Canine Crunchies, Barkery Bites, and Mutt Munchies. (I still winced every time I said that last one, but it was what it was and they did actually sell wellto my surprise and amazement.)

But I wanted something new for the party. We were going to keep the online store open during construction and the party would be a perfect opportunity to get some fun photos for the website and introduce a new product.

I figured it should be Halloween-themed, though. Which meant finding an appropriate name. Maybe Ghostlysomething.

Or DevilishDelights. No, I'd already used delights. Devilish Delishes? No. That didn't work. Too much sh-ing.

But maybe Boolicious?

Bites?

Or Booberry Bites?

Or Boolicious Booberry Bites? That was a mouthful.

And it used bites again which I'd already used for Barkery Bites.

I frowned out the window, trying to work it out. Boolicious, Booberry, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. I found myself tapping my foot along with the sound and made myself stop.