Recently fired from his teaching job as an art professor, David Harrington becomes enamored with Jessica, the owner of a prestigious doggie daycare, who hires him out of sympathy, but regrets doing so after the pup of her wealthiest client is stolen from Dave in his first week on the job!  Dave must become a sleuth in order to find the dog, keep the girl, and save the business.

SYNOPSIS:

PAINTING WITH DOG

Dogs, Romance, and a kidnapping mystery. Think the John Cusack movie, “Must Love Dogs,” but with suspense! This story will tug at your heartstrings as well as your pants leg, and keep you on the edge of your seat.

Painting With Dog is the story of an unemployed art history professor who falls madly in love with a prestigious doggie daycare owner on the hunt for the thieves who stole her wealthiest client's canine.

When down and out DAVE meets JESSICA, it’s love at first sight. Too bad Jessica has temporarily sworn off men. In fact, the only man in Jessica’s life is her English Bulldog, Leo.

Wooing Jessica is going to be an uphill battle, but Dave manages to work his way into Jessica's life by landing a job as dog walker at her upscale Doggie Day Care. Perfect since Dave now needs a job. Not so perfect, because what does Dave know about dogs! He is an academic.

Well, that might explain why on his first week on the job, Dave gets clobbered over the head by a thief, who kidnaps a dog owned by a multi-millionaire art collector.

The kidnapping definitely puts a hold on Jessica and Dave's budding romance. If word gets out that her company has lost a prominent client’s dog, her business will go straight down the tubes.

Dave must solve this mystery in order to get back into Jessica’s good graces and have a chance at love. He presents Jessica with an original painting of her and her dog as peace offering. Awh! Jessica is touched. This guy is sweet! But in order to be the hero and get the girl, he must find that kidnapped DOG of hers. And Dave is hot on the trail.

His sleuthing leads him to two potential suspects: a sexy art forger and a handsome debonair investor. As Dave scrutinizes that sexy art forger’s every move, Jessica investigates the debonair investor. What a charmer he is? Foreign accent. Drop dead handsome. But, he may also be a dog-napper! Is Jessica willing to overlooking that? She seems to be falling for him.

Attempting to keep Jessica on the straight and narrow, Dave drags her along on an evidence finding mission; a midnight break-in at an art gallery owned by that suspicious art forger. But they set the alarm off, narrowly escaping, barely evading the authorities. Jessica realizes that Dave really is risking life and limb for her. And he unveiled a key piece of evidence along the way.

Dave may be actually be winning back the girl. But the only way to keep her is to find-the-DOG!

The couple solicit the help of some unlikely characters along the way, including: Raul - the flamboyant Doggie Daycare manager, Leo - Jessica’s drooling bulldog, Barry - Dave’s IT friend who joins the hunt with some illegal online sleuthing, and Jessica’s BFF Grace - who ends up falling in love with Barry. There is plenty of love to go around. But what about the DOG!?

The story comes to a grand finale in an airport chase scene, because what rom-com doesn’t end in an airport? Except this time, the chase is after the DOG!

Will it be the sexy art forger who is responsible? Or that debonair investor who’s a hottie? And when that Dog is finally “recovered”… is it the right one?

Painting With Dog and Painting with Dog 2 are both available in screenplay and novel from, upon request.

* The writing team is represented by Mark Ricche of Cryptic Pictures Management.

PAINTING WITH DOG