Short Stories
ILLUSTRATED STORIES
by Ron Hevener … permission to publish (with credit to the author) is granted …
The Luckiest Racehorse Alive
This story appeared in the Lancaster Sunday News, written by Pat Johnson The day Ron Hevener called to announce the birth of Naja, he was as excited as any new father. To Hevener, Naja's birth was evidence of just one more miracle in the unfolding events of Nahgua - a...
If Animals Could Talk
Winter’s aching fingers pinched my ears as I hurried to the barn. My toes, cozy and padded by woolen socks in a new pair of work boots, bent with each chunk of frozen mud beneath them and sent fluffy, mindless snow bouncing away on my path. A shepherd amid his flock...
So Much Alike!
"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."- John Shedd One of the things I like most about horses is their emotional honesty. By emotional honesty, I mean a horse’s direct connection to its natural impulses. These can be impulses of...
What Are You Building?
A little boy threw down the wash towel and refused to wash the dishes. His young father, who probably didn’t like washing dishes, either, said, “OK. If you won’t do the dishes, then you must do something else.” “But, why?” asked the boy. “Why must I do something I...
The Ride of Your Life
It was one of those sunny days when you can’t sit still, when something stirs in your belly – in your blood – and you’ve got to get out and do something! The sound of a lawn mower danced on the breeze; the smell of fresh-cut grass and evergreen sap flowing through...
Behind the Scenes Again!
When the chance came to produce a story for public TV, we grabbed it. A half-hour program for animal lovers? Move over, NBC peacock. There’s a new kid shaking his feathers! Public TV (which is a broad term meaning everything from your local cable station to the mighty...
The Littlest Puppy
He wasn't the biggest puppy in the litter. Two others were bigger than him, and both had drifted into a sleep from which there would be no awakening. As gentle hands lifted him out of the whelping box and offered a bottle, he nuzzled into the tips of each finger,...
The Peppermint Candy
The moon was high … the indigo/night air smelled like water and the air sizzled its arms around you . . . that's how it felt, as we waited . . . . She hadn't been born on the farm. Unlike the rest of the mares, she had been the expensive gift from a man to his wife....
The Love of Animals
Over the years, I've been lucky enough to know lots of interesting animals. Horses, Dogs, Cats, Wildlife... If they liked people, I had a knack of getting to know them pretty well. When I started my career as an artist, animals were a natural subject for me to...