Quite a Tip

Yesterday's New York Times carried the story about a 71 year old widowed waitress, A. D. Carrol, from Texas, who got a little more than the customary 15% from one of her regular customers at the steak house where she works. "He just looked up at me and said, 'You're a good ol'gal,'" she recalled. "'You want a horse?' I thought he was kidding."

Well he wasn't. On Sunday, Carrol met her retired thoroughbred race horse named Mailman Express who was living at her benefactor's horse farm northwest of Houston. She was not disappointed. The 5-year old bay gelding was, in Carrol's words, "gorgeous" and it's safe to say she was instantly smitten.

No stranger to horses or their care, Carrol already owns two and works two jobs to pay for their room and board. She is thinking of donating Mailman to the stable where she boards her other horses "if they let us ride it free."

As for her benefactor, Carrol would say little other than he is a regular customer and on the day he offered her the horse, he only ordered two cups of coffee. He came back two days later to confirm that she still wanted it. According to the Times, "He jokingly asked for a dollar...but she hung tough, proposing instead that he pay her a dollar to take it. They settled on a no-cash deal."

On many levels, the gift horse is rescuing Carroll from a string of bad luck. In 1963, her husband was in a car accident that killed her six year old son. Her husband subsequently died in 1983 of a heart attack and another one of their sons was murdered in his Houston office by a robber.

For some reason, Carrol's benefactor knew that Mailman needed to be Carrol's special delivery and chances are that he has found him the perfect home. The rewards of rescuing any animal are immense and if your heart and your pocketbook are large enough, my advice is never to look a gift horse in the mouth.