Levi

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 18th 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.