Sometimes Y for Yak

Sometimes Y for Yak is the heartwarming story of Hazy Burton as she comes of age in 1950’s Alabama. An animal-lover from the day she was born, at age eleven she embarks, with no resources, upon a mission to rescue abandoned dogs. Her step-father will shoot any dog he sees on his property, and hoping to prevent the slaughter Hazy enlists the help of a beloved family friend who agrees to purchase the kibble she’ll need to feed them. She knows that hiding the dogs in the barn is a dangerous undertaking, but there’s nowhere else she can take care of them. The ones she can’t save she buries behind the barn in a make-shift cemetery, and she searches for someone willing to take the ones that survive. On the same day she rescues a hound who appears to be beyond his prime, her brutal step-father is killed in a saw-mill accident, which gives Hazy a reason to wonder if her new friend has magical powers.
Well aware that neutering is the best way to control animal population and solve at least part of the problem of abandoned pets, she dreams of someday becoming a Veterinarian, the kind that will neuter a dog or cat for free if its owner can’t afford the operation. But her family is dirt poor now that her mother has been twice widowed, having lost her first husband in World War Two (a tragedy), and husband number two as related earlier (a blessing). With no money to pay for college, what makes her think she can ever afford to go?
Hazy’s mother marries again, this time to the kind of man any woman would want, and things look up for a while. After her older brother and personal hero is discharged from the army, he marries a girl the family has never met, forges a check to pay for their honeymoon, and winds up in prison. But that’s not the half of it.
Sometimes Y for Yak is a wry, touching novel that will take you on a journey of heartbreak and adventure as Hazy discovers the real value of family, friendship, trust and unconditional love.