Book excerpt: Author Blaize Clement has earned herself a legion of fans with the first five books in her pet-sitting mystery series. Now Blaize's beloved heroine, Dixie Hemingway, is back, and when Dixie's latest assignment turns dangerous, it's up to her to save the day. Dixie, no relation to you-know-who, is helping an injured and cantankerous man take care of Cheddar, his orange shorthair cat. Soon Dixie finds herself totally smitten with the man's adorable infant great-granddaughter. But the baby's naive young mother has enough knowledge about certain powerful local big-mney honchos to send them to prison for life, and they are willing to do anything, even kill her baby, to shut her up. Caught in the turmoil caused by the grandfather's prickly pride, the granddaughter's misguided plans to regain her young husband's respect by telling the truth in court, and the ruthless determination of wealthy villains to preserve their ill-gotten millions, Dixie is the only person who can rescue the baby. And she has to do it without letting law-enforcement people know -- not even Lieutenant Guidry, with whom she has a new romantic relationship. Does Dixie have her claws sunk too deep to make it out of this one? Find out in book six of Blaize Clement's splendid series.