Katrina at 20

20 heroic tales of people helping animals 

as told to Sandra Sarr, LSU Vet Med strategic communications

Kaye Harris and Molly the Pony

Kaye Harris, rescued Molly the pony, who was stranded on a levee, and eventually treated at LSU Vet Med. The day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, people in a neighborhood south of New Orleans spent all day evacuating their families and pets. Molly, an 18-year-old pony, watched as they all drove away. Eventually, Kaye Harris was called, and she brought Molly to her farm. Three months later, a dog attacked Molly and severely injured her leg. 

Dr. Rustin Moore, director of LSU Vet Med’s Equine Health Studies Program at the time, noticed that Molly was already adjusting to her injured leg, making her a candidate for a prosthetic leg, a practice extremely uncommon within equine veterinary medicine. Amputating Molly’s injured leg below the knee, he fit her with a stiff white cast. The cast was replaced with a prosthetic limb consisting of a round rubber hoof and a smiley face at the bottom of the hoof, which left smiles imprinted on the ground she walked. Molly became a therapy horse, visiting children’s hospitals, nursing homes, and veterans, bringing smiles to everyone she met. She worked as a therapy horse until her death in 2018 at 31 years old. Her story inspired a children’s book, Molly the Pony: A True Story, by Pam Kaster. Molly’s unforgettable resilience inspired everyone, including her veterinary team at LSU Vet Med. In a video about Molly, Kaye said, “Without adversity, how would we know what our limits are?”