n her good days, 11-year-old Lisa Cosby endures hours of breathing treatments and tube feedings to combat damage caused to her lungs and pancreas by cystic fibrosis. The slightest contact with germs can pose life-threatening illness and hospital time.

When she climbs into the saddle atop a 3-year-old horse named Colby, provided last fall by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon, a wide smile spreads across her small face as she transforms into a typical horse-loving girl with matching pink boots and cowgirl hat.

"He loves me and I love him, too," Lisa says. "He licks me on the ear."

Lisa was adopted as a medically frail 5-month-old in California by Terry and David Cosby, who now live in Rogue River. Doctors warned the Cosbys she would not likely survive infancy.

The family has since adopted three of Lisa’s siblings, also with cystic fibrosis.

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"As an infant, she had a lot of traumas and feared everything," Terry Cosby says. "She would stand and watch kids get off and on pony rides for hours and hours. It took nine years of watching other people ride before she got on.

"And once she did, that was it."

Lisa was first introduced to a miniature horse named Mahogany. Her first regular-size horse was a "spook-proof" now-15-year-old mare named Tina.

Aside from breaking down barriers for the small girl who faces some developmental delays, horseback riding creates a pounding sensation ideal for breaking up the thick secretions cystic fibrosis causes in her lungs.

Tina, now more a family pet than a riding candidate, has all but retired, leaving Lisa without a pal for her daily therapy. Last year, Lisa discovered Colby, a young white horse in a field that could’ve passed for Tina’s baby brother. He was.

"We found out the two were related. He’s a white and light color beige palomino — very, very gentle," Terry Cosby says.

When the Oregon chapter of the national Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted the Cosbys to offer to grant Lisa’s most cherished wish, they were prepared for a request to Disneyland, a cruise to a tropical island, even a "computer request," said Kelly O’Malley-McKee, media relations coordinator for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon.

Local Make-A-Wish volunteers who visited Lisa could not pry a single wish from her made-up mind other than to "bring Colby home."

"They asked if there was somewhere she’d love to go shopping," her mother recalls, adding with a laugh, "She said Costco."

"‘Where’d she go to buy something really special?’ ‘Grange Co-Op.’ No matter what, she kept going back to this white horse with the pink nose — Tina’s brother."

And a wish, says O’Malley-McKee, is a wish.

The organization went to bat for the family, saved the horse from the auction block and delivered him with a plethora of other goodies including a party at McDonald’s, riding lessons, boots, a helmet and plenty of needed tack and other supplies.

"The very heart of Make-A-Wish is what does our ‘wish kid’ dream of? Obviously there are considerations we make when granting a wish like a horse, because obviously it’s a large animal," O’Malley-McKee says with a laugh.

"It had to be a perfect scenario for us to grant it. And for Lisa, this was perfect. She was very clear that she didn’t want any horse. She wanted this horse."

While horseback riding helps with Lisa’s cystic fibrosis, having a horse that constantly nuzzles and nibbles his own biggest fan into serious bouts of giggles isn’t bad on the heart either, says O’Malley-McKee.

For Lisa’s mother, her daughter’s love for horses offers hope in a sometimes frustrating circumstance.

"Lisa’s love of horses is the most intense thing in her life," Terry Cosby says. "A lot of that has to do with overcoming her fears. From the time we had that first miniature horse, this has been her hope, what she looks forward to. I knew, hands-down, Lisa’s wish was going to be a horse.

"Because of Make-A-Wish, Colby is going to open up a new world for her."

For the 11-year-old cowgirl, bringing Colby home was about having family together.

After battling constant sickness from October through January, she’s eager to saddle up.

"I was sick in the winter. Couldn’t ride him. I get to ride Colby in Spring," she says.

"He got to live with me and Tina ... Make-A-Wish helps kids with cystic fibrosis. They help a lot of kids. They got me Colby."

As for future plans?

"Mmm, to be a cowgirl," she says.

Make-A-Wish Foundation begins its quest for ‘a million quarters’

Media relations coordinator Kelly O’Malley-McKee says the goal of the campaign is to raise "a million quarters," or $250,000, toward a $1 million-plus annual operating budget.

While the foundation’s offices are in Portland, volunteers around the state are trained to help gather wishes and make them happen. Wishes range from requests for trips or personal computers to car makeovers or, for another Rogue River girl, a trip to the American Doll factory in Chicago.

As of February, the state chapter of Make-A-Wish had granted 60 wishes this fiscal year, which begins in the fall.

Regardless of financial status or other criteria, Make-A-Wish grants wishes for kids age 2½ through 17 with a life-threatening medical condition.

A common misconception is that "wish kids" must have terminal illnesses, which O’Malley-McKee says is not true. Wish kids are referred by parents, family or themselves and medical conditions are verified by a physician. While the foundation "turns no one away," O’Malley-McKee says, funding runs tight at times.

Some 84 cents of every dollar goes directly to fund wishes.

"We don’t refuse anyone’s wish, but some wishes are granted faster than others. Right now, referrals are starting to outpace the number of wishes we receive per month," she notes. "This ‘make-a-million’ campaign is our biggest push every year to ensure we can continue to grant thesespecial wishes."

For more information, or to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon, visit online at www.orwish.org or call 1-800-934-WISH. The foundation accepts monetary donations as well as frequent flier miles from Alaska Airlines.

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at buffypollock@juno.com.