She had always had a special connection with the animals that entered her life - dogs, cats, marmots, wildlife in general, but especially Colorado's beautiful mule deer. It was a mutual camaraderie, perhaps stemming from her childhood where nurturing was not the norm and love and security were mostly fleeting treasures. In the summer of 1994, Karen Hurd met "Sweety," a soon-to-be orphaned, baby buck, and their lives - complete with laughter, tears, joy, fear, lessons taught, and lessons learned - would meld for almost eleven years into a sweet saga of unconditional love. However, My Sweety is much more than a tale about one of Lake City's renowned Riverside Bucks and the woman he befriended. It is a story that also deals with day-to-day social and environmental issues, conflicts that result when well-intentioned laws clash with well-intentioned humanity, and the underlying compromises that continuously affect the lives of each and every one of us. The innocence, emotional honesty, and down-to-earth feelings expressed in My Sweety cannot help but pull at the heartstrings of its readers.