Brett considers adopting Lady Lulu

Brett Bohlinger’s consideration of Lady Lulu turns one of her life-list goals into a practical test of what responsible care requires. The prospect briefly opens onto a future Brett can imagine—a child of her own riding a horse—but desire gives way to questions of time, money, and the animal’s needs. She does not adopt Lady Lulu; instead, she leaves the possibility unresolved, refusing to confuse a goal’s emotional appeal with readiness to fulfill it.

A possibility at the shelter

The possibility emerges during Brett’s visit to the Chicago Animal Rescue Shelter. As she writes a check for Rudy, her new dog, Brad Midar studies a shelter flyer. He notices that the organization also places horses and asks Gillian, the shelter representative, about them. Brett immediately pushes back: they are not getting a horse. Brad’s response leaves the door open, but his qualification that it is only the two of them “for now” touches a possibility Brett has not entirely put away.

For a fleeting moment, Brett imagines a child—her child—riding. The image makes the Horse goal feel connected not only to her own life but to a hoped-for family life. Yet she immediately measures the fantasy against present circumstances. She is a city person who loves Chicago, and she sees no straightforward way to care for a horse there. The imagined future is tender, but it is not a plan.

Lady Lulu’s circumstances

Gillian brings out a binder and shows Brett and Brad a photograph of Lady Lulu. She describes her as a fifteen-year-old thoroughbred gelding who raced earlier in life and now has arthritis and other issues. Her former owner will not keep her. Gillian says she could suit pleasure riding or light trail riding and presents her as gentle; she also invites them to come see her in person. Lady Lulu is stabled at Paddock Farms in Marengo.

Those details make the choice more specific than simply deciding whether Brett wants a horse. Lady Lulu is an aging former racehorse with health problems and a potential new home, not an abstract way to complete a list item. The shelter’s flyer describes the Chicago Animal Rescue Shelter’s commitment to ending animal suffering and supporting no-kill communities for stray, abused, and neglected companion animals. Against that stated purpose, Lady Lulu’s situation sharpens the stakes: taking her in would mean accepting responsibility for an animal who needs care, not merely admiring her or imagining what she might represent.

The costs of care

On the drive home with Rudy, Brad returns to the subject. Brett suggests that the Horse goal may be one she should be exempt from. She explains that she has already called around about boarding and found the likely commitment expensive: feedings, supplements, grooming, and a monthly fee higher than many people’s mortgage payments. The nearest place she found is an hour away. The distance would make care a regular obligation, not an occasional outing.

Money is already spoken for. Brett objects to spending what Joshua House could use on horse care and reminds Brad that the money from selling her car is intended for Steve Pohlonski. Her savings are dwindling, while her inheritance is conditional on completing her goals and may not arrive soon enough to make the immediate costs manageable. Brad points out that the money might be available if she receives the inheritance, and urges her to take the goals one at a time. Brett’s answer is that a horse cannot be treated as a goal in isolation from the animal who would depend on her.

That distinction also sets Lady Lulu apart from Rudy. Brett sees the dog as a manageable commitment, but insists that a horse is different. She has neither the time nor a nearby boarding arrangement, and she will not take on an animal she cannot properly care for. Her objection is not simply fear of a difficult goal: it rests on the possibility that her choice could leave another living creature without adequate attention.

A goal left open

Brad eventually accepts Brett’s reasoning, though he does not abandon his hope that she will reconsider. He jokes that they can put the goal out to pasture for the moment and gives her time to rein in her fears; his run of horse-related wordplay draws an eye-roll, but also makes her laugh. Their exchange shifts the mood without resolving the practical question. Brett does not agree to visit Lady Lulu or take her home.

The decision is therefore a postponement, not a completed adoption and not a clear permanent rejection. Brett had questioned why her mother placed such an apparently unsuitable goal on the list, especially when her mother knew she loved city life. Yet she also remembers that the goals have so far not let her down, and Brad encourages her to trust her mother’s judgment. The unresolved tension is between following the list and exercising judgment about what its demands mean in real life.

Lady Lulu’s possible adoption gives that tension an ethical edge. Brett’s imagined child on horseback reveals the future she longs for; the boarding costs, hour-long distance, and need for ongoing care bring her back to what she can responsibly promise now. By leaving the goal open rather than pursuing it at any cost, she treats care as more than fulfillment of a personal ambition. The episode ends with the Horse goal still pending and Lady Lulu’s fate outside Brett’s decision.