Poor Horse on a Rich Hill

Families occasionally, and unintentionally, find themselves adopting animals-a daughter brings a goldfish home from a party, a son finds a lizard in the backyard, or a stray cat stops in for a saucer of milk and never leaves. For Mary Neiswender and her family, it is a horse.

Miss Gay is as close to human as a horse can get, and like most humans, she is a pain. Many nights Mary finds herself trudging through the rain, glasses fogging, shoes squishing through the mud eroding off one of the richest Los Angeles hillsides, trying to find her wandering, one-of-a-kind horse. This big, red, one-eyed horse, with a sway back, knobby knees, and very few teeth is a disgrace to the posh neighborhood, but she quickly becomes family to the Neiswenders. The only thing they know about horses is what they've seen in western movies and television shows, but what they lack in practical knowledge, they make up for in love and compassion.

This chronicle of their hilarious adventures with Miss Gay is full of laughs and touching moments that people of all ages will enjoy. It's endearing. It's preposterous...And it's all true