Gay Balliet graduated from Muhlenberg College with a degree in English. After teaching high school for many years, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Lehigh University. She has taught college English composition and World Literature at DeSales University, Kutztown University, and Cedar Crest College. Currently she is assisting her husband, Edgar, who is a large animal veterinary practitioner in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country. Both of Dutch descent themselves, the Balliets revel in the array of animals they treat daily: bats, wolves, tigers, elk -- a rainbow of exotic animals -- as well as horses of all breeds.

Lions & Tigers and Mares -- Oh, My! is Gay's fourth book and the sequel to Touched By
All Creatures. Lions recounts the adventures treating animal patients in eastern Pennsylvania and the Poconos.

When not accompanying her husband on his rounds, Gay
likes to write, garden, run, ride horses, scuba dive, and converse with the animals.

Some of Gay's favorite things:

• Favorite book: The Hog Book by William Hedgepeth
• Favorite actor: Goldie Hawn
• Favorite food: donuts
• Foods she avoids: donuts
• The ultimate wish: That each person who reads this book gives a good and caring
  indoor or outdoor home to a needy animal at a humane shelter.