Unleashed: a novel

Carolina Graham, a young widow and mother to eleven-year-old Rowan, struggles to support her daughter by repairing camping equipment. To help Rowan overcome clinical depression, they adopt a dog from the local Eugene humane society. Zephyr is an Irish wolfhound-Scottish deerhound mix. Rowan insists on this enormous puppy because she¿s secretly convinced they can communicate mind-to-mind. She calls this ¿pensing.¿Mother, daughter, and dogs leave for a ten-day camping trip, but on the way, strike a deer at high speed. In the ensuing multi-car accident, Rowan is knocked unconscious and Zephyr is thrown from the vehicle. The girl and her mother are air-flighted to Portland for state of the art head trauma care; Zephyr is left on her own in the wilds of Central Oregon.Moss Westbury loses a leg in Afghanistan and returns home haunted by devastating nightmares. He isolates himself on his family¿s ranch near Sisters, Oregon, where he is laboring to write about his experiences to expunge his war demons. He finds a measure of peace until one night, a howling creature¿not a coyote or wolf¿reignites his nighttime agony. He sets out to find the culprit.This story is told through four point-of-view characters, one of which is Zephyr, the dog.Will Moss find the howler? Will Zephyr survive? Will Carolina and Rowan reconnect with their beloved pet? Discover how their lives intertwine.… (more)