Vanilla was part of a small herd of dairy cows who belonged to a local school and were used to supply milk for the students. As with any dairy farm, if the cows at the school did not produce enough milk, they are shipped to slaughter. Even though she was still a young cow, poor Vanilla simply could not make enough milk, so her life was coming close to ending.
Fortunately, a kind woman found out about Vanilla and begged the school to let her rescue her. She contacted MFS and we agreed to take in Vanilla in 2013.
Vanilla has been moved around a few times since she arrived at MFS. We initially put her in the front paddock with Boo Boo, but when we would go in to fill water buckets she would run, full tilt, up to greet us. It got to be a little too dangerous because she was young and her braking system wasn't that accurate!
Next, we moved Vanilla to our large cow pasture where she could spend her days roaming with the rest of our cow herd. However, after a few years of being content to roam, Vanilla decided that she was more interested in finding a way out of the pasture. In fall 2018, we found Vanilla munching on grass outside the pasture several times, but no matter how often we put her back, she escaped again!
Since we couldn’t risk Vanilla escaping in the winter, she is currently living in our large barnyard along with many of our goats, llamas, pigs, and sheep. She has particularly been enjoying getting attention from the MFS volunteers who clean the barn every day!
Photo by Carole Carnovale
