Rescue animals offer comfort to children with disabilities

Leander, Texas — Some superheroes need a sidekick. For 5-year-old Harper, it’s Halo, a white fluffy dog with one leg and an unlimited supply of love. 

“She has lucky fins like me,” Harper said of Halo’s superpower. Harper’s superpower is her hand that formed differently. She calls it her lucky fin. 

Every week, Harper visits a rescue animal sanctuary outside Austin to check in on her fellow superheroes. 

“I have not only four dogs in wheelchairs but a cow in a wheelchair and a lamb in a wheelchair,” said Jamie Wallace Griner, who cares for more than 160 animals with disabilities who were left on death’s door. 

The sanctuary, Safe in Austin, matches animals with children who know what they’re going through. 

“There’s like 90%, you know, stress and hard and difficult and muddy and poopy and then there’s this 10% that is pure magic,” Griner said. 

When Harper and Halo get together, Harper’s mother, Celine Wulms, said it’s magical. 

“I think Harper got a lot of her own confidence coming here, seeing how resilient those animals are,” Wulms said. 

Sometimes unconditional love come from rescue animals rescuing children.