Live and Let Growl Read Online Free Page A

she was more content by my side.
    This trip’s duration had seemed like entirely too long a time for us to be apart. Faith had agreed; she’d been excited when I’d told her that she was coming with me. I hoped the excursion wouldn’t turn out to be too hard on her.
    â€œThe Kentuckiana Dog Show Cluster takes place at the Kentucky Expo Center here in Louisville,” Aunt Peg said. “Starting the day after tomorrow.”
    â€œI know that.” I withdrew my hand from the backseat and folded it primly in my lap. By my calculations—aided by a glance at the GPS—we were less than ten minutes from our hotel, which was right next to the Expo Center.
    â€œMost of the horse racing and breeding activities in Kentucky are centered around the Lexington area, which is sixty miles east of us. That’s where the famous farms like Claiborne, Spendthrift, and WinStar are. It’s also where Keeneland is located.”
    â€œAnd Lucky Luna?”
    â€œShe’s there as well. In a little town called Midway. Anthony had her boarded year-round at a farm called Six Oaks. I gather an arrangement like that is not unusual where racehorses are concerned. Much of the Thoroughbred industry is supported by the money that comes from absentee owners.”
    â€œIt’s odd to think of owning a horse and never seeing it.” I couldn’t imagine not wanting to see my dogs.
    â€œThese horses aren’t pets,” Aunt Peg informed me. “Many of them are worth a great deal of money. Even those Thoroughbred owners for whom horse racing is a hobby, still have to treat it as a business. Their horses are investments. With the sums that are involved, they have to be.”
    Clearly Aunt Peg had been studying up on the subject.
    â€œTell me about Lucky Luna’s farm,” I said.
    â€œMost of what I’ve learned so far I’ve gotten from their Web site. They appear to be a full-service Thoroughbred farm with facilities that cover more than a thousand acres of land. They board broodmares and raise foals. They consign horses to the various sales. They have half a dozen stallions standing at stud, and they even have their own training track for getting youngsters started.”
    â€œIt sounds like quite a place.”
    â€œIt should be.” Aunt Peg slanted me a look. “I’ve seen Anthony’s bills for Lucky Luna’s care. Which I might add, are shortly to become my responsibility. For what he’s been paying to keep that mare in hay and oats, a top specials dog could enjoy a lengthy career at the very highest levels.”
    â€œOuch,” I said. We were talking about real money now.
    â€œOuch, indeed,” Aunt Peg muttered. “Clearly this isn’t a business one wants to approach with blinkers on. Nor to be involved in without knowing all the facts first. Before we left home, I did as much research as I could on my own. But now it’s time to call upon the experts and see what they have to say.”
    Excellent plan, I thought. Except for one thing.
    â€œDo we know any experts?” I asked.
    Aunt Peg nodded with satisfaction. “Eleanora Gates Wanamaker.”
    That got my attention in a hurry. I was quite familiar with Ellie Wanamaker’s name. Over the years, I’d read about her Gatewood Kennels in numerous Poodle books and magazines. I had pored over the pedigrees of her twentieth century champions and top producers in Poodles in America . Like Aunt Peg, Ellie had had a career in Standard Poodles that spanned decades. Unlike Aunt Peg, she had disappeared from the show scene long before I first became involved.
    â€œEleanora Gates Wanamaker is still alive?” I said.
    â€œOf course, she’s alive.” Aunt Peg snorted. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
    I thought about articles I’d read, and the various pictures I’d seen of Gatewood Poodles that had been born as early as the 1970s. Faith was related to one