about the book
To say George is quirky is a massive understatement. He has arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, and aquaphobia, the fear of deep water. His acrophobia, the fear of heights, is so bad he can only live in ground floor apartments and plane trips are a horror. This phobic’s worst fear, though, is commitment. He’s never met a girlfriend’s family before and now he’s flying to Prague to met Nadya’s older brother Nikolai and his daughter Masha. The flight has George on the verge of panic. Thank heavens JR is there to calm his jittery human!
JR is a Jack Russell terrier, a take charge, in-control type of dog. For seven years, he’s travelled the world with George, an employee of the Canadian embassy. For the last five months, they have been stationed in Moscow. JR thinks the city is terribly smoggy and oppressively hot, but he knows its best smells and made friends with the local savvy strays. He just hopes for some off-leash time to explore the sights, sounds—and especially the smells—of historic Prague.
JR thinks Nadya is paws down the best thing to ever happen to George. Thankfully, she invited JR’s best friends, embassy dogs Beatrix, Robert, and PieM along with their owners. Sadly, after settling in, the dogs find themselves confined to their new rented digs while Nadya and George argue about his phobias. They are keeping him from enjoying the city. To make matters worse, Nadya decides to take in a stray—an annoying cat named Kisa! JR hates cats and shows it by shredding the furniture!
When Pie goes missing, the pooches find an open window too tempting to ignore. They’re off on an adventure, tearing around the city, checking out the shops, local cuisine, parks, and favorite tourist spots. They make their way to the Circus Sergie, where Nikolai works as the star trapeze artist. After finding Pie there, JR and friends soon realize the circus animals are far from happy. Flashy Circus Magnificus is poaching their best acts, and Circus Sergei is about to go out of business!
JR and his pooch pals quickly come up with a plan. The animals will take over the show for one spectacular night. The act will bring the house down and save the circus…unfortunately it all hinges on that darn pesky cat!
about the author
Raised in rural Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, Rachelle Delaney grew up riding horses, climbing trees, and playing with the family’s dogs. When confined inside, she wrote stories about riding horses, climbing trees, and playing with dogs. Her room was papered in posters of Great Danes and Weimaraners, and she was obsessed with the different breeds, especially the really big ones.
Surprisingly, Rachelle’s career objectives didn’t include writing. She planned to take over Santa’s job or becoming the next great Broadway actress/veterinarian.
College plans involved conservation biology and saving the world. Unfortunately Soils 101 put her asleep. Instead, she headed to the West coast where environmental studies could be done on a beach. She also took up her pen again and studied creative writing, earning a master’s degree from the University of British Columbia. Now she lives in Vancouver and is a freelance writer, an author, a creative writing teacher, and a new member of the Hakai Magazine team, a coastal science and environmental periodical. Rachelle works four-day work-weeks and dedicates Friday through Sunday to writing children’s stories.
Her two latest middle grade novels feature JR, a spirited Jack Russell terrier. Her inspiration came from a tiny article that said Moscow had 35,000 stray mutts and some of them take the metro to get around the city all on their own! Rachelle decided it was a great basis for doggy adventures. Of course, she had to travel to Russia to check out the mutts for herself.
In her spare time, Rachelle rides with Chilean gauchos, climbs trees in the Costa Rican rainforest, runs from Venezuelan poisonous ants, and searches for Malaysian pygmy elephants. If you happen to run into her, ask her about the tropical bug that got stuck in her ear! Rumor is she will go on at great length about any of these adventures…if you let her!
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Book Week
Author profile: Hakai Magazine
Author interview: Vikki VanSickle
Also by Rachelle Delaney:
The Captain’s Revenge (The Ship of Lost Souls, Book 2). Grosset & Dunlap. 2013.
The Metro Dogs of Moscow. Puffin Books. 2013.
The Hunt for the Panther (The Ship of Lost Souls, Book 3). Grosset & Dunlap. 2013.
The Guardians of Island X (The Ship of Lost Souls, Book 2). Grosset & Dunlap. 2012.
The Ship of Lost Souls (Book 1). Grosset & Dunlap. 2012.
read more!
The Metro Dogs of Moscow by Rachelle Delaney
JR, an embassy dog, travels around the world with his quirky phobic human, George. Now he is in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, Russia, and JR is done with leashes and dog parks. He wants a real adventure, so he sneaks out of his apartment and meets up with some wily stray dogs for fun and adventure, especially on the metro trains. When the strays start disappearing, it is up to JR to solve the mystery.
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