Willow's mom tells more of the story of Maeve the orphan calf.
"She was born about two weeks before Christmas. Mike was at work at the time so I decided to bring her in the house for about six hours to get warm. She was born during the day thankfully. Mike who is ever the optimist wanted to try and put her back with Hazel thinking maybe this time she would produce milk, but we both decided in the end it was better just to bottlefeed Maeve in the barn, like we had done with Murphy
At the same time, though separately, Murphy was outside in the field, and the other cows weren’t being very nice to him and he was losing a little bit of weight, not so much that it was dangerous, but more than we were comfortable with, so we decided to bring Murphy in the barn as well, and keep each other company
Not long after she was looking healthy and feeding well and enjoying human company, Mike happened to see on Facebook a post from a local farm something about 'meet and greet adult Highlands Cows' for $200 for 45 minutes a visit, and he realized maybe people would like to help feed Maeve!
We put up a Facebook add a few weeks before March break just to test the waters and see if anyone would be interested, and it was very successful!
Sometimes we have four 'showings' a day. Each time I go to the barn I put Willow on my back so she gets to meet people too, not just Maeve.
We priced things at what seemed reasonable- $60 for a bottle feed and $40 for a 'snuggle', and we’ve had lots of families and groups of grownups and single people visit and everyone’s had a really great time, petting Maeve (and Murphy) , asking questions, combing her long hair and of course, holding the bottle while she gobbles down her milk.
Over the past three months it has brought in a nice little boost to the farm income, and pays for a variety of things we always need, like hay and bags of milk replacer."
Willow's parents ended up selling Muphy for a good price too, and he is going to a new home next month. His luck has really turned around too, He's going to be the breeding bull - From the one being being bullied on the farm here, to the becoming the head of the herd at another farm.
