solution to the free acrostic puzzle

I've realised I forgot to tell you the solution to the free acrostic I posted on January 30. Apologies for taking so long!

By the way, we're not sure whether to  call this a crostic, an anacrostic, or even an acrostic. But who cares? The puzzle's the thing, not the terminology. (I hope you agree.)

Here it is:

The novel was Curse of the Scarab, by H Y Hanna.

The short extract from this enjoyable book was:

The grey tabby disappeared into a towering bush, which seemed to have grown straight into the back wall of the house. Looking closer, Honey realised that it in fact concealed a huge gap where the crumbling wall had fallen away.

And the details:

A - homologue

B - yew

C - hedgehog

D - Australian silky terrier

E - nymph

F - neglect

G - a cheetah

H - cavalier King Charles spaniel

I - upbeat

J - Rin Tin Tin

K - show

L - ebb

M - ohh

N - flew

O - To Say Nothing of the Dog

P - hatch

Q - etude

R - swab

S - chat

T - a watt

U - Red Wolf

V - a wag

W - bearded collie

You'll notice that the first letters of the solutions, reading down, spell out the name of the author and the title of the novel.

I hope you had fun if you did it!

a free crostic puzzle

I'm not sure if any of you (humans, that is) have ever done a crostic puzzle, but here's one, courtesy of one of Penny's humans.

The diagram is not a crossword, even though it might look like one. The whole thing is an excerpt from a piece of writing, in this case a novel. No hints as to which novel, of course, but if you have read any of Hsin-Yi's doggy mysteries, you might...oops, I wasn't supposed to give any hints.

Each word in the text ends at a shaded square, which is not necessarily at the end of a line. There's no punctuation.

You answer the clues as best you can, and transfer the letters to the diagram. The tiny letter in the top right of each square tells you which clue to transfer from.

Often you can guess incomplete words on the diagram, especially if you've read about Honey and her adventures - oops, forgot I'm not going to give away which author features in the puzzle.

As an extra help, the first letters of each answer, on the clue page, reading down, spell the name of the author and the title of the book.

In case I haven't explained clearly, here are some links to sites that describe the way to solve a crostic:
how stuff works
netcrostics

I'm including it as a jpg, so you would have to print out these two following sections, if you want to do it. I don't know how to make it bigger on the blog page, but if you click on each page of the puzzle, it opens in a new window where it's easier to read.

In a couple of weeks I'll post the answer, just in case someone wants to see it.

Have fun!

BTW, I've just had a thought. Seeing I'm a primary school teacher (elementary school), I'll mention that this puzzle is copyright free. Any teachers using H A Hanna's award-winning books in class are welcome to print off these puzzles.

who is Alfie the dog?

I've just added a new blog to my list of must-reads. It's called Alfie Dog and it seems to be a great place to download single short stories.

I wonder why it's called after a dog?

While I was rummaging through the site, trying to find the answer to that question (which I didn't find), I discovered there is an offer of a free download of seven stories. I'll go over there and get the stories after I finish writing this post.

And as to why I'm sort of off-topic for Penny's blog... it's  because I'm expecting one of my short stories to be published there soon! Of course there's a dog in my story - but it's not Penny.

I'll have to try to think of a story featuring Penny. But it wouldn't be a whole book, as Hsin-Yi is doing about Honey the Great Dane.

what is 'dog food'?

When Penny was recovering from her cruciate operation, I downloaded the incredibly helpful and FREE booklet from Dr James St Clair about post-operative care. (I'm not sure it's still free, but I hope it is.)
I have the greatest respect for him as a vet, even though I've never met him. (I live on the other side of the planet from him.) So when I read a post by him about the pet food industry, I expected  it to be good.

And it is.

Dr. James St. Clair's home therapy booklet is still free

Recently Dotty asked me how I had obtained the enormously helpful home therapy booklet produced by Dr James St. Clair and I wasn't sure how I got it, so I emailed him and he's replied with the links for the whole set of booklets.

I think this is one of the most amazing things available on the Net, actually, as it's packed with information that even the best vets and surgeons don't seem to give out - detailed timetables and instructions on how to look after your dog immediately after surgery for cruciate injuries, and how to continue the therapy in the following months.

Here's the list of sites for the different surgeries:
tplo surgery

tplo guide

tta guide

cruciate surgery

fho guide

free beauty treatment for dogs in Darebin Parklands

Penny took the mud treatment in Darebin Parklands today and I suppose her skin must be soft and lovely.
Of course, we don't really want to get close enough to check, because...she smells.

First she approached the treatment parlour.



Then she coated herself.









Then she took a grass massage.



Next, a hair treatment - just a hint of colour around the ears.



Followed by a quick dip in the filthy creek to smooth the treatment into her skin.

free canine training equipment from the roadside

As I've posted before, I love examining stuff on the roadside rubbish collections. Recently I noticed this great yellow pole, one of the poles I used in my canine freestyle training in yesterday's post. It's the bottom part of a lamp.

Here it is with my increasing collection of useful poles.

should dogs go to heaven if they won't 'give' to their humans?

Right after I blogged about Penny being in disgrace for refusing to give up her smelly stocking, I came across a funny spoof debate on Bark Blog about whether dogs can go to heaven if they've been naughty - actually, it's about whether they can go to heaven at all.

The church-sign generator looks like fun. Here's mine:

how to make your own agility equipment

Penny enjoys agility but I've found it rather expensive to buy much equipment for practice at home. So I was very intrigued to follow a link from Maholia to another site called Instant Agility that has heaps of instructions for making agility equipment from pvc pipes. It looks great!