Animal Camp by Kathy Stevens

Author:Kathy Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Fabulous Four

When we learned of four newborn calves desperately needing sanctuary, it took farm manager Kathy Keefe, animal care director Jenn Mackey, and me a nanosecond to say, “Yes . . . we’ll take them.”

Mind you, we needed four little bulls like we needed holes in our heads. For starters, we already had too many steers, a fact that made for all kinds of housing and pasturing challenges. (Our four cattle “herds” are permanent groupings of animals who like each other. These four babies would be a fifth; that’s a lot of pasture space devoted to a single species.) Secondly, maintaining strict quarantine would be critical but tough. Critical because they could well be sick (and at the very least were newborn, vulnerable, and in need of quiet and sleep); tough because babies are cute and everyone would want to love all over them. Finally, Keefe and I knew from experience how few people would step up to volunteer for the middle-of-the-night, bottle-feeding shifts. Newborns need to eat every few hours. While the idea of feeding newborn animals in the middle of the night sounds romantic, trust me—the bloom wears off quickly when one does a few 2 a.m. shifts in a row.

Still, the situation sounded grave, and we had the resources we needed to support these tiny lives, so on July 28, 2012, Russ and Leah drove to Accord to pick them up, while the rest of us prepared their quarantine space, checked our medical supplies, and became giddy with excitement.

The arrival of new animals is always a celebration. Whether we’re welcoming a single blind duck, ten starving horses, three hundred chickens, or an assortment of animals seized from a hoarder, there’s a palpable energy on the farm in the moments before the animals arrive. No matter how many or the shape that they’re in, they serve as reminders: of why we’re here, of how much we love our job, of how much that job matters.

There’s a special joy in rescuing babies, of course, so when Russ and Leah pulled up to the side of the barn, I thought my heart would burst. Quickly, I glanced around at the other humans, all of whom were grinning ear to ear.

“Boys!” I shouted to them as the truck stopped.

“Hello, little ones!” Keefe said, with slightly more reserve than I. Russ encouraged us to keep our voices down, saying, “Two of these little ones are in bad shape, guys.”

We instantly saw what he meant. First, the newborn calves weighed no more than twenty-five pounds each. We weren’t sure if that was a normal size for Jerseys—we’d have to look up average birth weights. But we were sure of how sick two of them were. Not only were they as weak as rag dolls and unable to stand; they also had no swallow reflex.

We sat with them for a long while, encouraging the two who could eat to figure out how to use a bottle, discussing treatment options for the other two, and falling in love.

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