Sweet Rosebud formerly lived on a homestead. The family who was keeping her had endeavored to live “off the land” and “off the grid”. But, as happens all too often in these types of situations, they later had a change of heart.

Inevitably, it came time to relocate all of the animals that they no longer intended to care for—this included the two family dogs.

As it happened, the rescue worker who was helping to place the dogs, inquired about the fate of the cows on the property—one of which was Rosebud, the other, her young calf.

Rosebud the sweet mother cow we rescued from a “homestead”.

The rescue worker was informed that Rosebud and her calf would be sold to another farmer at auction. This would certainly mean her continued use as a milk machine and eventual slaughter and the likelihood that her calf would even sooner be slaughtered.

Fortunately for Rosebud, the kind person who was involved in rehoming the dogs wanted to see Rosebud land safely in an environment where she would not be exploited and never have to fear for her safety. Enter Changing Hearts Farm Sanctuary.

Rosebud loving her new home at Changing Hearts Farm Sanctuary

Although there was a bit of arm twisting involved since the original “owners” wished to profit further off the selling her body. To their credit, they agreed to surrender her after all.

That is when we borrowed a trailer and made the trek to Eastern N.C. to pick her up.

Of course, we can only imagine, but it must have been traumatic—at the very least, confusing—for her to be lifted out of her familiar environment and loaded into a trailer headed off to “who knows where?”.

Fortunately, we were able to rescue her young calf along with Rosebud, which hopefully provided at least some reassurance to her.

For our part at least, we knew that there was nothing to fear and that she would be provided with the best that life could offer her in sanctuary.

And for her part, Rosebud, by now, has settled in completely and bonded with her herd mates... and us, too! So much so, that we feel she truly must know she is home at last!