Cow Who Lost Her Mom Gets Adopted By Family Of Wild Deer

Bonnie’s life was turned upside down when she was just four months old and barely left her mother’s side.

A farm in upstate New York had given birth to the calf. However, when the farm’s owner died, the cows on the property were scheduled to be sold. Bonnie and her mother, like so many other cows, were doomed to be separated.

Bonnie’s herd was being put into the truck one day last summer when she decided to make a break for it and flee into the woods.

Bonnie’s escape became something of a legend among the locals.

The minutes ticked away. The temperature dropped. Despite this, no one has been able to apprehend the calf. People, though, were aware that she was still present.

Some sightings were from eyewitnesses who saw her going across their property, while others came from images taken by local hunters using wildlife cameras placed up near Holland, New York. And there were a lot of differing viewpoints on what should be done with the runaway cow.

“By occasionally venturing out of the safety of the forest, Bonnie quickly became a local celebrity, dividing the Holland community into two groups: those who were ‘Team Bonnie’ and rooted for her to survive, and those who were determined to shoot and eat her,” Farm Sanctuary media relations specialist Meredith Turner-Smith told The Dodo. “Both parties looked for her in the woods, which had been buried beneath three feet of snow for the whole winter, but the ‘babe in the woods’ remained concealed. That is, until she was discovered on wildlife cams by hunters. And what they seen astounded them.”

Bonnie the mythological bovine fugitive may have been separated from her family, but she was not alone.

Bonnie had found herself in the company of a herd of wild deer that seemed to adopt her as one of their own.

“Because Bonnie had lost her original family (and cattle are herd animals), the deer assisted her in surviving and welcomed her as one of their own, eating, sleeping, and running with her!” Turner-Smith stated the following. “Whenever people came, this ‘bovine Bambi’ would vanish into the forest like a deer.”

Despite the fact that Bonnie had found love and comfort in the woods, those who followed her story knew that Bonnie, as a domesticated animal unsuited to the harsh winter woods of upstate New York, couldn’t stay with her new herd indefinitely if she wanted to grow up to be a strong, healthy cow.

Fortunately, Bonnie had someone watching out for her: a neighbor called Becky offered to assist Bonnie in surviving the winter.