• last year
A woman has adopted a 90lb cow from a petting zoo - which sits on her sofa and gets taken for walks round the neighbourhood.

Mina Alali, 26, said she saw the "sad" 90lb calf in a small pen and claims he was shut away 24 hours a day without any home comforts.

So Mina and her boyfriend Alex Saraceno, 25, asked if they could adopt him - and drove the cow named Moo to their home in the back of their car.

And now he's living the pampered life with a spacious garden to run around and plenty of toys to play with.

Moo sleeps in the garage during the night but can be found snuggling on the sofa under a blanket during the day.

Mina - who also has a 65lb pet pot-bellied pig called Merlin - says she'll care for Moo until he gets too big for their two-bed home.

And then they'll find him an animal sanctuary to live in while they get land of their own.

Mina, a content creator, from Sacramento, California, USA, said: "He was taken away from his mother at four days of age.

"We saw him when he was 10 days old, he was in a pen with hay shavings and some food and water.

"There were no blankets or toys and he barely moved.

"When we saw him, my boyfriend's sister thought he was dead because of how lifeless he looked."

After she got the call, Mina said she spent the day running around Sacramento buying materials to make a makeshift home for him.

Mina said bringing one-month-old Moo home on November 4, was an "incredible" experience and they are excited to watch him grow.

Mina said: "I ran around the city to get everything I could to make a good den for him.

"I got hay, fencing, food and spent a lot of Friday getting it ready.

"We got him nice and early on Saturday and he has been healthy, gaining weight ever since and dancing around the yard.

"He absolutely loves Alex, I am a little jealous."

Mina is no stranger to adopting exotic animals, in 2023 she adopted Merlin, a pot-bellied pig as a house pet.

But, Mina said that introducing Moo and Merlin is still a work in progress.

She said: "Moo wants Merlin to be his buddy and I hope that will be the case in a few weeks.

"Not only was Merlin an only child but pigs are pray and Merlin is in fight or flight mode and doesn't know what to think at the moment.

"Merlin can be very dramatic and will just start to scream whenever Moo goes near him."

Mina plans to keep Moo at home for the time being but as he gets older and potentially more aggressive, Mina said she plans to put him in an animal sanctuary until her and Alex get land of their own.

Mina said: "We are trying to rehabilitate him, we are going to figure out the long term but he is ours.

"Alex and I plan on getting some land in the near future and we want to then maybe rescue another cow and have them all be buddies.

"Moo has such a strong bond with us he thinks we part of his herd.

"When we are outside and supervising him he loves to dance around the garden.

"When we come inside he will moo at the back door until we let him in."

During his time at the sanctuary Moo never had a visit from the vet so Mina and Alex are currently raising $8k money for his vet bills.

Mina said: "He hasn't had a single vaccine or wellness checks.

"We didn't know how much he weighed and wanted to make sure he was free of disease.

"We are fundraising as we are new at this, we don't live a lavish lifestyle and would love support to cover the medical expenses that Moo needs."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-costs-for-moo-our-rescued-calf

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00 - Moo.
00:01 - I've been keeping Moo and Merlin pretty separate
00:03 just because I wanted Moo to be cleared by the vet.
00:06 But Merlin has seen Moo from a distance and ooh.
00:10 Be nice Merlin.
00:14 No Merlin.
00:16 It's definitely something Merlin still needs to adapt to.
00:20 I think Merlin has felt like an only child
00:22 and pigs are very territorial.
00:24 So we're being super cautious
00:26 and very slow with socialization.
00:28 But I figured let's have Merlin tell us
00:30 how he feels about Moo 'cause he knows.
00:33 - Yes.
00:34 No.
00:35 - Do you like the rats?
00:36 - Yes.
00:38 - Do you like Moo?
00:39 Yeah, those are the rats.
00:41 No, no, no Merlin.
00:42 No, no, no Merlin.
00:43 Merlin, Merlin.
00:45 Do you like Moo?
00:46 Merlin.
00:49 Do you like Moo?
00:52 Do you like Moo?
00:53 Do you like Moo?
00:56 - No.
00:58 - Oh.
00:58 It's time to feed my cow.
01:02 Let me show you how I do it.
01:03 Alex and I rescued him on Saturday morning.
01:06 And for about a month that he had been
01:08 at this horrible petting zoo,
01:11 they were only feeding him whole milk,
01:13 store bought from like Walmart.
01:15 As a calf, he needs to be getting higher protein milk.
01:18 If it's not naturally from his mom's milk,
01:21 who he didn't have access to for the month of his life.
01:23 So we have to kind of wean him off of the store bought milk.
01:27 I'm doing a scoop of this calf milk replacer.
01:31 And then this is actual cow's milk
01:33 that a sweet girl, Bae, gave me.
01:35 Ideal for him.
01:36 As well as some whole milk.
01:38 He was only getting 12 cups a day of milk.
01:40 And by this point he should be getting at least 16.
01:43 We're slowly working up to 16.
01:45 It can do more harm than good to overfeed
01:47 after he's been fed that little.
01:49 He got five cups this morning
01:51 and he's gonna get another five cups now.
01:53 Tonight he'll be getting four cups of milk.
01:56 I'm gonna give Merlin some peanut butter
01:58 and put him in the pet room.
01:59 I'm gonna calf replacers mixed with water.
02:05 One cup of this and one cup of this.
02:08 Less and less whole milk and more of the other good stuff.
02:12 Let's give Merlin his toy.
02:13 Okay, we gotta wipe your nose.
02:15 You don't like the towel, but we have to do it
02:17 'cause you have dirt all over.
02:18 Peanut butter, peanut butter.
02:20 Good job, Merlin.
02:23 That's more like five and a half, six cups,
02:25 but it's okay.
02:26 He's got just a little under five cups this morning,
02:28 so it evens out.
02:29 Check the temp.
02:31 Perfect.
02:31 Warm, but not too warm.
02:32 He needs to be a little hungry
02:34 after he drinks all the milk
02:35 because that encourages him to eat his calf starter.
02:39 Let's go get Moo.
02:40 Hi, Moo.
02:42 Oh yeah, look at the stuffed animals we got for him.
02:44 If you guys are new here
02:46 or haven't watched the video that I posted yesterday,
02:48 we know that Moo is going to be a bull.
02:51 Our main concern was to get him out of that environment
02:53 where he was being malnourished and mistreated.
02:55 We are rehabilitating him.
02:56 We love him, so we want him to be ours,
02:58 but we realized that this space
03:00 is not gonna be suitable for him
03:02 when he is a full grown calf.
03:04 Our intention is to get him somewhere
03:06 once he's off of milk,
03:08 which is what the vet recommended,
03:09 get him somewhere where he can be with other cattle,
03:13 other bulls.
03:13 We'll be getting him castrated
03:15 so his aggression is at a minimum,
03:17 but we're still gonna be paying for him,
03:19 visiting him all the time,
03:20 and then once Alex and I buy land,
03:22 which we hope to be the case in the near future,
03:25 hopefully, fingers crossed,
03:27 he will come back with us
03:28 and we'll rescue a couple more cows.
03:30 He'll have his herd.
03:31 He definitely thinks Alex and I
03:32 are part of his herd at this point,
03:34 so we're hoping that even with bulls' natural tendencies
03:38 to get more aggressive, he'll still love us.
03:41 But he's so amazing with us.
03:43 He especially loves Alex.
03:44 It's incredible.
03:46 I'm the one who's feeding him during the day
03:48 'cause Alex goes to work, this is my job.
03:50 stay home and do this and take care of Merlin, Muffy and the rats.
03:57 Good job!
03:59 Yay!
04:01 Birthday to you, birthday dear Moo.
04:08 (Moo sounds)
04:10 (Moo sounds)
04:12 Yay Moo, come on!
04:14 Come on!
04:16 Come on Moo!
04:18 Yay!
04:20 Yay!
04:22 I'm in town, so am I.
04:24 I go and try.
04:26 I go and pile them chickens back in my style.
04:28 And try to copy my style.
04:30 I'm on that next.
04:32 That's so too fast.
04:34 That's so too fast.
04:36 I got that boom boom boom.
04:38 That future boom boom boom.
04:40 Let me get it now.
04:42 Let me get that boom boom boom.
04:44 Let me get that boom boom boom.
04:46 (Kissing sounds)
04:48 I love you mom.
04:50 And I love you.
04:52 Yay!
04:54 [MUSIC]

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