Cows
Bootsie
Bootsie is a Watusi cow, a breed with the largest horns in the world (eat your hearts out, Texas Longhorns!). When she was younger, she was used as a riding animal and appeared in parades and rodeos being ridden by her owners. As she got older, and her and her horns became larger, this became a dangerous proposition. Instead her owners decided to breed her in the hopes of getting available calves from her. But Bootise is the “less desirable” (to whom, I don’t know) black and white coloration, and not the rarer and more desirable red and white. Even bred to red and white bulls, Bootsie would produce black and white calves, and her owners decided that they no longer wanted her. Bootsie is a friendly girl but has no idea of her size or where her horns are in relation to the rest of her, making her a challenge to handle. Luckily, she will follow a bucket of grain or a bale of hay anywhere! We are hoping that she will make friends with our highlands, but this has not happened yet.
Sven
Sven, a Highland cow, was purchased by a photo studio as a tiny calf to be used as a prop for photo shoots. He was pulled from his mother and bottle raised, ineffectively, leading to him head-butting people. It is not clear how he broke his horn, but once he was no longer “perfect,” the studio had no use for him. He was sold to a livestock broker, who attempted to halter train him by putting a chain around his nose and dragging him behind a truck (this was a common method of “breaking” cows and even horses to being led by a halter). He came to me with a severely scarred jaw, and palpable fear of humans. It took me over a year for him to allow me to touch his face, and he still barely tolerates it from me, and not from anyone else.
Olaf
Olaf was born on a commercial breeding farm to a first time mother, in the middle of the night, in a rainstorm, in a ditch. By the time his owners found him the next morning, he was cold and unresponsive. They rushed him into their house and began warming him up, trying to get him to respond to them. At this time, their young toddler daughter, confused by all the activity in the house, kept asking what was happening. Her mother, trying to explain, said that the calf was frozen and they were trying to bring him to life. The toddler, having just watched Disney’s “Frozen,” exclaimed “Oh, like Olaf!” Hence his name, which I promised the youngster that I would keep. Olaf recovered from his difficult start, but his mother, confused by the apparent death and then reappearance of her calf, would not accept Olaf and would not let him nurse. Not having the time to nurse a newborn calf, his owners asked me if Safe Harbor would take him on. He is like a little brother to Sven.