(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, October 08, 2012 ) San Francisco, CA- When deciding what her greatest wish was, 11-year-old Kaitlynn Bessette did not hesitate.
She wanted to hunt a bear.
“I’m interested in hunting and fishing,” Kaitlynn told ABC News affiliate WAOW-TV.
Last Saturday her dream came true when she joined the Pittsville, Wis.-based United Special Sportsman Alliance, a nonprofit organization that grants wishes for children with disabilities. Kaitlynn was diagnosed at birth with a rare heart disease that blocks the flow of blood from the right atrium to the right ventricle. As a result of the condition, called tricuspid atresia, she needs both a heart and liver transplant.
Still, Kaitlynn said her health does not stop her from doing the things she loves.
“I was thinking I was going to not see anything and I’d have to go another day, [but] I felt thankful, like really thankful I shot a bear,” she told the station.
Kaitlynn said that when she shot and killed a 335-pound bear, shooting it directly in the heart, her biggest dream came true. “When I looked through that scope, I didn’t see it as a bear, I saw it as a 300-pound lion that’s about to attack you,” she said. “So I held the gun as steady as I could, I turned my head and then I shot.”
Her mother, Amanda Bessette, said it did not immediately register with her that her daughter had killed a bear. “I think I knew it, but it just didn’t sink in until she called me and when she called me it was amazing. I started instantly crying,” Bessette told WAOW.
Kaitlynn’s father, Seth Bessette, said, “She’s a good kid. I’m really proud of her.”
The Bessettes plan to mount the bear on their wall as a tribute to the day.
