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Ande Miller
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
June 18, 2006--The Kansas Prairie is full of caring people and Ande Miller of Valley Center is one of them. For her, life is simple. You take care of people. And you take care of animals.
If you are a horse, this is exactly where you should be. |
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"It makes me feel good to see these horses get better and get well.
"Hey, what's that for?"
If you a nurse, this is precisely where you should be. |
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“God put me here for a purpose and that's why I'm here."
For Ande Miller of Valley Center, the art of caring doesn't stop at the hospital door. Ande is a radiology nurse at Wesley. The old and the young benefit from her care.
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"I could be out here all day long if I didn't have to go to work at the hospital."
But these are also her patients. Horses no one else loved. horses destined to die.
"This horse is Jim and he is our very first rescue horse and he is literally a walking skeleton. I mean he had no meat on him anywhere. He was skin and bones. But I thought, OK, I've got to take him home. Now he's a different horse, my daughter rides him...he's just the best thing."
Seven months ago, Ande created Hope in the Valley, a horse shelter near Valley Center. |
"I guess I can't describe how good a feeling it is to know that you've had a hand in the recovery of those horses."
These horses had no future and no hope. |
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"God had a purpose for me. Whether it's out here or whether it's at the hospital taking care of people or whether it's here taking care of these animals. I know I'm supposed to be out helping somebody."
Sometimes miracles come in small packages. In May, during a thunderstorm, one of the rescued horses gave birth. A colt aptly named 'Thunder'.
"And when you see the results and you see them getting better, things like this baby, it's just that personal satisfaction knowing you've done something. It may not mean anything to anybody else, but it does to me."
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Thunder's mother had been headed to the slaughterhouse.
"She was totally infested with ticks. She had 'rain-rot’ and her hair was all falling out."
But with care she survived and gave birth. These are stories Ande's 'Hope in the Valley' shelter hopes to repeat.
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"They are all just spoiled rotten aren't ya...aren't ya."
Larry's Note: Help support "Hope in the Valley".
They can be reached at 519-4129. Cash, brome hay bales and grain are
needed. . |
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