Blue

Levi

Levi and Blue

Levi and Blue are two of eight baby calves rescued by Mossburn in July 2006 along with 27 other assorted animals who were not only being starved and neglected by their owner but also sexually abused by him.  Of the eight calves three had to be humanely destroyed immediately as they were beyond help but we successfully raised five.  Two have gone to another sanctuary, one has gone on loan and we are left with these two young bullocks, known always as “the babies”. We will no doubt still be calling them that when they reach their teens!!

Levi is the older of the two; he was born on the 18^th of May 2006 while Blue’s birthday is the 1st of June 2006.  Levi is a Holstein Friesian, Blue a Belgian Blue cross hence his name, the number in Levi’s ear is 501 hence his name!

When the calves arrived here they were totally traumatised, feeding them was difficult at first but they soon got the hang of it but other than sucking on their bottles they were listless and disinterested avoiding human contact if at all possible and flinching when touched, of them all Levi was the worst and at times we thought we would never gain any recognition or trust from him.  One of the ways we employed to familiarise ourselves with these poor abused creatures was to sit in their loose box with them reading aloud, the poems of Tennyson seemed to be the most acceptable!  The day Levi finally stretched his neck in response to being scratched brought tears to our eyes.

Blue is an outgoing character, he has to be in on anything that is going on and is a very affectionate animal, he loves to lick people especially around the face and hair, it is like being stroked with a piece of sandpaper!  He can be a bit headstrong if there is food around but he knows the word “no” and will usually respond to it by backing off.  For all his forwardness and apparent toughness if he feels threatened he will immediately run to Levi and hide behind him!  Levi has a far more nervous disposition and, despite his enormous size, is a lot more gentle in his affection, happy to just stand and be stroked particularly under his neck which was the spot that eventually sparked his acceptance of humans.  Blue is happy to have people sit on his back but there is no way Levi will tolerate a rider. 

Annie
Annie, who was born in 1990, is a Jersey cow who arrived with us in November 2002 when she came down from Ayrshire, and is the result of a divorce. Her owner had to sell her home and land and move to a house with no land. She contacted us to ask if we could take Annie and we said we would as a last resort. Since then the owner had tried numerous places to re-home Annie but to no avail, so here she is with us.

Annie is a very odd shape but she is sweet natured and friendly though she looks down her nose at you if you attempt to feed her anything other than cattle cake. We thought (wrongly) that she would love to tuck in to a bowl of horse pasture mix! She has settled in now but at first refused to go out to the field with the other animals, the first day she did venture into the field she ran about kicking up her heels like a young heifer.

Joker
Joker has lived here at Mossburn since 1992, being not quite a year old when she arrived. Joker is a "miracle birth" heifer, she was born five months after her mother had already given birth to a calf. This is not supposed to happen and it occurs only very occasionally but Joker is the living proof that sometimes the laws of nature can be changed. When she was born Joker was extremely small and weak and she had hypothermia, the farmer’s mother took her into her house and hand reared her.

It was thought that Joker would never grow big enough to take her place in the commercial herd and as the farmer’s mum did not want her to go to market she asked her vet if he could advise her what to do, "ring Mossburn" was the answer and so this cute cuddly little Galloway Simmental cross heifer arrived on our doorstep. She is still cute and cuddly but she is certainly not little any more - she’s enormous! Fortunately Joker is very gentle and adores having a fuss made of her. Some cows, you see, do make rather adorable pets!

Solo
Solo is a pure bred Limousine heifer and is very pretty. Her date of birth is 29/5/1998 and she arrived at Mossburn on 27/6/1999. Solo like Joker was an accident but an accident of a different kind. Her mum was a very young heifer who should not have had a calf at all. So when Solo was born, like Joker she was small and weak, and although she did not need to be taken into the house she did need special feeding and care.

Again like Joker it was decided that Solo did not stand much chance of growing big enough to join the commercial herd, the farmer who bred Solo grows our hay for us so he did not need to ask anybody what to do, he just came right on over and gave Solo to us! When she arrived the other cows were away grazing on someone else’s field and for the first few months with us Solo only had horses for company, that’s why we called her Solo, it took her quite a long time to decide, when the others returned home, whether to become a cow or stay a horse!

Although initially wary of people she is now very friendly and likes to have her neck scratched.

Victoria
Victoria, who was born in July 1995, is a very large Friesian cow who came to live with us on the 10th January 2002 as a direct result of the foot and mouth crisis. Victoria's human Mum runs a boarding kennels, when the foot and mouth outbreak was confirmed she asked her neighbouring farmer if he would take care of Victoria for her as she could not afford for the kennels to be closed down due to the presence of a cloven hoofed animal on the premises. The farmer kindly took Victoria in and tried, as had her Mum, to get her in calf, Victoria however appears to be barren as all attempts to get her pregnant failed.

When the crisis was over the farmer wanted to return Victoria to her Mum as she was no use as a commercial cow. Mum, like many of us, is uneasy about the recurrence of foot and mouth and again with her business in mind was reluctant to take Victoria back so she rang and asked if we would take her and as we had four bovine beasts anyway one more was not going to make much difference. Victoria is a mild mannered and friendly cow who has settled in well along with all the other animals.