Featured Resident:



Hansel

My story-While this is my story it is also the story of one million other tiny calves just like me except I got lucky, so in return I have decided to become an ambassador.

I burst into the world early one sweltering hot day in January, blinking in the sunshine my mummy mooed proudly at me.  She licked me tenderly as I began to stand on my shaky legs.  My mummy was so beautiful with her big brown jersey eyes.  But as I looked into her eyes I saw tears forming.  "What's wrong mummy?"  I mooed as I wobbled my way to her big full udder.  But she didn't answer, she just looked nervously past me.

Fumble as I did with excitement, I somehow managed to  make my way onto her teat and sucked in her beautiful warm milk.  Milk that nature had supremely designed just for me.  The first milk mummy had on offer for me was called colostrum, it's full of immune enhancing nutrients that would protect me from the nasty bugs the outside world had to offer. Mummy cows are really smart cookies you know, they have designed their milk especially  for their  rapidly growing calf with a huge bone mass and a stomach that is divided into four compartments.  That may all sound a little strange to you, as you have none of those things and you are not a cow!

Not long after  I had my first drink I was so tired I decided to have a little nap.  Again I felt my mummy's loving tongue gently caress my entire form, it was so beautiful.  Just as I began to close my eyes I felt my mummy tense her body and freeze.  I heard footsteps and she looked nervously towards them.  I heard a man's voice say, "we've just had one born this morning, I'll check".  The man wearing big gumboots came thumping towards me and roughly pulled me up.  "Nope, this one is boy.  We'll just have to get rid of him" as he flung me to the ground, "ouch" I thought.  "Get rid of?"  I wondered what that meant.  Sadly I was about to find out and I never saw my mummy again.  Things were looking really grim until a kindly lady wearing a hat came along and again I felt the warm touch of kindness.

You see, cows do not simply produce milk by virtue of them being cows.  Like all female mammals they will only produce milk when they are about to give birth to their baby, and only keep producing milk as long as the baby needs it in its infancy.  Once the baby is old enough to eat grass or other foods the mother's milk dries up.  So here's the problem.  What do you humans do with all the little calves that have been born so you can drink our mothers milk?  For one million of us there is no use, hence we often get referred to as "bobby calves" as we are only worth the low economic unit of a "bob".  But I got lucky!  My friends here at Edgar's Mission tell me I am priceless, I hope you think so too.  Thanks for being my buddy!

Do you want to be a Best Buddy to Hansel?