title: A Horse in the House and Other Strange but True Animal Stories
author:  Gail Ablow 
description: Gail Ablow is an award-winning broadcast journalist who has produced documentaries, news, and interviews for PBS, CNN, ABC, and other networks. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.<br /><br />Kathy Osborn has illustrated several childrens books and one novel. She began collecting news stories about animals in 1999 and wanted to illustrate them to satisfy her curiosity. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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   NOVEL OF COMING HOME
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Charles Martin
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  FOR MY MOM
  
  
  
  
  
  Even now ... a lady on her knees.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  WHEN THE ACHE WOKE ME, I POKED THE TIP OF MY NOSE out from under the covers
  and pulled my knees hard into my chest where my heart hung pounding like a war
  drum. The room was deep with shadows, the moon hung high, and I knew Rex would
  never let me out of bed at this hour. I inched my head out from under the
  covers, my hair sticking up from the static, and looked down from my second-
  story perch, but my breath had fogged the window and wrapped a hazy halo
  around the moon. Car-size hay bales wrapped in white plastic lined the far
  fence and framed the backdrop against which three or four horses-their backs
  covered with blankets-and one or two deer fed silently in the ankle-high
  