Here are two animals who got a second chance thanks to some very special people.
World-famous racehorse Secretariat had a half-brother named Straight Flush. But despite being related to one of the most famous horses in history, in 1999 Straight Flush was on his way to a slaughterhouse in Pennsylvania. That’s when a writer named Stephanie Diaz stepped in and saved him.
Straight Flush was born in 1975 and started racing as a two-year-old. In spite of his pedigree (Secretariat as a half-brother, Somethingroyal as his dam, and Riva Ridge as his sire), he just wasn’t a great racehorse. He lost every race he entered during his first season, but finally won at Santa Anita in 1978 (with Bill Shoemaker riding him). But that was the best he could do. Straight Flush won a couple of smaller races, but he never lived up to the potential everyone thought he had. Within a few months, his owner had sold him.
To the Highest Bidder: Over the next two decades, Straight Flush moved from farm to farm. He went to stud, but didn’t have much success. Finally, in 1999, he ended up at a feed lot in Texas and was put up for auction on the Internet. That’s how Diaz got involved. A friend let her know that Secretariat’s half-brother was for sale and had no interested buyers. So she bid $200 and waited. Within a few days, she found out she’d won the auction—and the horse.
Diaz arranged to pick up Straight Flush in Texas and have him moved to California, where he lived for the next eight years. He was in rough shape—and didn’t have many teeth—but he lived out the rest of his days in a good home. Straight Flush died on September 3, 2007, at the incredible age of 32.(Most racehorses don’t make it past 20.)
No one knows for sure where Molly came from, but in 2005, the gray-speckled, 16-year-old Appaloosa pony was found wandering alone in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. She ended up at the home of Kaye Harris, who fostered horses and other animals. Molly seemed to be doing all right in Harris’s care until, one day, a pit bull terrier that Harris also fostered attacked the pony in the yard. By the time Harris arrived, Molly was severely injured: her stomach was badly cut, all four legs had been bitten, and the dog was gnawing at her jaw. Harris managed to get the dog to let Molly go, but the pony didn’t look like she was going to make it.
Harris rushed Molly to a local vet, who patched her up. But when the pony got an infection in her right front leg, Harris took her to the Louisiana State University veterinary hospital. Doctors there initially thought she’d have to be euthanized, and Harris knew that the odds were against a full recovery. “[Treating a pony with an injured leg is] so expensive,” she said, “and so hard, and everyone who tries fails. But we just asked them to spend some time with Molly.”
The doctors at LSU fell in love with the pony. She had a sweet disposition and got along well with everyone, even in her injured state. They decided to amputate her leg and fit her for a prosthesis, which was donated to the cause.
A Miraculous Recovery: Today, more than two years after her surgery, Molly is fine. She can walk with and without her prosthetic limb, and also works as a therapy pony—Harris takes her to hospitals, nursing homes, any place whose residents need a good story to brighten their day. In particular, children with prosthetic limbs respond to Molly’s story so well that she’s even become the subject of a book: Molly the Pony was released in 2008.
And what about the dog who attacked her? Harris was convinced that his outburst was the result of trauma caused by the hurricane. Rather than have him euthanized, she found him a home with a family trained to deal with troubled dogs.