Liberty Biscuit / Melanie Bowles.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Does a family mystery stand in the way of saving Kip'sbest friend?

Katherine Pearl Baker--"Kip" for short--is the only child onher family's rural peach farm. She longs for a pet to ease the loneliness.Unfortunately, her father has an angry opposition to all animals--horses inparticular. Why he dislikes them is a confounding mystery.

Hiding in the woods on the Fourth of July, Kip encounters abedraggled donkey with one eye and a floppy ear. Immediately smitten andcompelled to protect him, she feeds him biscuits and takes him home. When it isdiscovered the donkey fled an abusive owner, Kip's father finally relents,reluctantly allowing him to stay.

Kip is elated when her grandfather agrees to help her fosterthe donkey, who she names "Liberty Biscuit," along with two emaciated horsesremoved by the local sheriff from the same home, as the cruelty case goes tocourt. While caring for the animals, Kip's happiness is overshadowed by ashocking discovery in a trunk in the family farm's hayloft--a faded photographof her father as a boy that reveals secrets long kept.

A court order to return the horses, and even worse, Kip'sbeloved Liberty Biscuit, to the owner who had starved and beaten them, throws Kip'sworld into turmoil. She knows she must find a way to keep them, or she willhave betrayed the best friend she has ever had. But saving the animals meansrisking the complete unraveling of her family as she exposes the long-buriedtruth about a tragic accident and a hurt like she's never known before.