Dead Canaries Don't Sing

Description for DEAD CANARIES DON'T SING by Cynthia Baxter:

JESSICA POPPER ISN'T YOUR USUAL AMATEUR DETECTIVE.

As a veterinarian, she's more experienced with paw prints than fingerprints. But thanks to her dogged persistence and her knack for landing on her feet, Jessie's got murder on a very short leash.

The sun is barely up and the day is already going to the dogs. Literally. As Dr. Jessica Popper embarks on a house call to a local horse farm, her one-eyed Dalmatian, Lou, and her tailless Westie, Max, stumble upon something unexpected: a corpse half buried in the woods. As Max happily digs up the dead canary planted near the body, Jessie realizes that this corpse was clearly about to sing. But about what? Or whom?Enlisting the aid of her on-again, off-again lover, PI Nick Burby, Jess applies the stubbornness of a bloodhound and the agile moves of a cat to identify a menagerie of suspects...including one who wants her off the case badly enough to kill again.

This is #1 in A Reigning Cats & Dogs Mystery.