LADY a boy’s saving grace

HER THICK, 8-FOOT-LONG TAIL brushes the ground as she exits the stall, towering over her human, 13-year-old Jake Carrell. The glowing chestnut mare and “love of his life” stands more than 16 hands high. On this hot morning in July, she’s stamping her hooves into the ground, raring to go. Jake gently strokes her snout.

“She’s feisty but calm when I ride her,” he says.

Clearly, Jake still is in awe of Lady after more than a year since becoming her owner. He always has felt a special connection with animals, including his dog, Trigger, his fish tank full of African cichlids and his late hamster, Bandit. He devours books on animal-related subjects and wants to become a veterinarian.

As he walks Lady around in small circles, he searches for just the right words to describe the admiration and respect he has for these creatures that roam the earth alongside us.

“It’s something else that’s alive besides humans,” he explains.

And when faced with the notion of death, Jake turned to horses.

The summer before second grade, he arrived home from camp to the news that his mother, Mary-Elizabeth, was dying of an inoperable brain tumor. The doctors had given her two to five years.

Jake was too young to understand what that meant but knew it was serious because his older brother was crying.

As his mom underwent treatment and fought for her life, Jake became more and more obsessed with getting a horse.

“He asked, and he asked, and he asked,” Mary-Elizabeth says. “He was really patient. He started asking once a week instead of every day.”

Although dizzy and weak from radiation, she felt well enough to pick Jake up from school one day. He politely reminded her about the horse. So, she finally made a move.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we go over there now?’ ”

She drove Jake to the Park Lane Equestrian Center, where he began riding and never stopped.

“Through all that radiation and recovery, he’d be riding. That was his escape.”

Four years later Lady came into his life from Chicago. He rides her twice a week and plans to compete in shows this season.

Mary-Elizabeth survived her battle with cancer. The tumor shrank to an “insignificant” size, the doctors say, but they still watch it. She receives an MRI every four months.

Still, she had plenty of time to reflect on what would happen to her family had she not lived.

“Jake was so happy when he was on the back of a horse,” she says. “I could just sit and watch him for 45 minutes. I thought, ‘If I die, my life is pretty good.’ It gave me a peace that he’s going to be OK.”

Liberty

The stray from afghanistan

LIFE ISN’T EASY FOR STRAY DOGS in war-torn Afghanistan, where they often are abused for dogfighting and other cruel games.

“They hate dogs over there,” says Linda Brooks, a Preston Hollow resident who works with Puppy Rescue Mission to save the dogs from such a fate. “When a [U.S.] solider finds a puppy, they say, ‘This reminds me of home.’ ”

Soldiers aren’t allowed to keep strays on base (they sometimes hide the pups in their sleeping bags), so volunteers like Brooks organize the transport of the dogs to the United States for the troops to adopt when they return home.

Liberty was scared and malnourished when she turned up in a litter in Wardack, Afghanistan. She arrived in the States in October 2012 under Brooks’ foster care. The soldier Liberty was waiting for returned, but medical issues prevented him from adopting her. So Brooks kept her, along with her retired therapy dog, Simon, who made regular visits with military veterans at the Dallas Veterans Affairs. That’s where Brooks learned about Puppy Rescue Mission.

The national nonprofit organization launched four years ago after a group of dogs on a U.S. post in Afghanistan alerted soldiers to a suicide bomber, thus saving their lives. One of the dogs, Sasha, died in the attack. Shortly thereafter, as bonds began to form among the soldiers and the dogs, one of the soldiers’ fiancés, Anna Cannan, raised money to bring the pups home. The effort extended from there, and Puppy Rescue Mission has saved 460 dogs in four years.