Kathi Appelt

There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road.

A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family....

The reader is invited to count hungry crows as they hunt for savory snacks.

While his life seems perfectly good as it is, Cardell, a young coyote, learns to tolerate--and even like--the coyote that is courting his mother.