During the summer these two calves were working at the Petting Farm at two or three fairs. Their previous owner, Sherry, told me she thinks they had been petted by about three thousand kids by the end of the season.
How did they end up in my herd? It's all Diana's fault. She just fell in love with little Isaac Hayes (his name was Skylar then) and got all weepy when she thought about how betrayed he'd feel when his turn came to be slaughtered for meat. Isaac is a Hereford, a beef breed. His friend Mickey Moo Valentine (who has a heart-shaped mark on his left flank) was also destined for slaughter. But Mickey is a Holstein steer, not robust enough for meat other than some ground beef -- it would be different for him, and he'd be more valuable if he had been born female.
So -- knowing that these two little creatures would require quite a fair amount of extra work on my part, I still agreed to take them home and keep them as permanent pets, as part of our little herd along with Margaret Thatcher and Elmer Cudd ("Bubba"). Mickey was already eating hay and grain, but little Isaac was still being bottle fed, as Sherry explained his mother had rejected him. So twice a day I went up to the barn to give Isaac his bottle. Here's Diana feeding him -- Isabelle, Giulia and Leah watching; Tanya supervising -- the bottle looks as if it came from a Looney Tunes cartoon:
Mickey Moo Valentine below right. He is quite a bit taller and more slender than Isaac.
Here are the two of them together:
Mickey has horns growing in, which will have to be removed. Isaac is "polled", meaning he has no horns and curly hair on his little face.
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