OUTDOORS: MIKE LEGGETT

Crossbow hunt gives local woman a boost

Sunday, November 01, 2009

It wasn’t quite the 41st birthday present Ingrid Shacklett was anticipating last October.

First there was the diagnosis of leukemia and the trip to Houston to begin chemotherapy. Then there was the blood infection, the quick trip back to Houston, the septic infection, and the coma as her organs began to shut down.

Ingrid survived her two weeks in intensive care, although she will never be the same physically. She has lost several fingers and the lower portions of both legs.

One thing she has found that she has not lost is her ability to hunt. She lost the 2008 season, but this year, she is back.

“We planned our wedding around hunting season,” Ingrid Shacklett recalls. “I didn’t hunt when we (her husband is Al Shacklett) got married, but I learned to love it.”

“Our first dates were hunting,” Al says. “She knew that’s what I did.”

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