"But Beauty's self she is!  My Gorgeous Georgie Girl was the model for the heavenly puppy "Titania" in "The Hound of Heaven" in A Regency Christmas." (1998, Signet)  Can you tell?  Well, she may be over a hundred pounds now, but she WAS a puppy once...

"...He hadn't gone three streets when he finally heard the soft puffing behind him.  He spun around.  He had a small square furry shadow.  The black puppy was waddling three paces in back of him as though he were pulling it on an invisible leash.  The dawning light showed the beast was the size of a substantial Christmas turkey, and covered with fluffy black fur, except for a thin white triangle on its broad head, four white socks, and a medallion of white on its plump breast that shone in the night like the fading bone white moon above them.  A patch of white ornamented the tip of the too long tail, like a fifth white stocking.  The animal rocked back and sat, tongue lolling, when it saw its new friend paused before it.... "

The next morning, Our Hero wakes to find he's shared a bed with his new puppy.

"...He'd awakened with worse companions, Thadeus decided, eyeing the animal carefully.  It was bigger by day than he'd thought it had been last night.  But it looked clean, in fact, in the bright morning light it seemed glossy as any thoroughbred.  It was gleaming black, its white and rust markings fresh and clear as new paint.  There was some rust on the muzzle and two rust eyebrows that wig-wagged its thoughts like semaphore flags as it regarded Thadeus one way and then the other, waiting for new sport.   And it was astonishingly fat.   A clean plump, sweet smelling puppy... "