After a bleak start at life, this little bull made an a-moo-zing recovery and is now enjoying a cushy life with lots of love and other animal friends.
Born on a California dairy farm, Goliath the cow was originally a "drop calf"-- a baby cow taken from its mother at birth to be sold for slaughter. But he was spared that fate, when the family on a nearby ranch intervened and took him in. Goliath has gotten so comfortable with the Hubbs family that he thinks he’s a household pet, and late last month snuck into the family’s house to curl up on the sofa.
Seventeen-year-old Shaylee Hubbs posted a photo of Goliath on the couch on Oct. 28, and it's been retweeted 32,000 times as of Friday.
Living on a ranch with horses, goats, sheep and chickens, the Hubbs family knows cows are not domestic pets, and has no intention of treating Goliath as one. But the sneaky little cow has taken to the family’s three large dogs, and observed how one of the Great Danes, Leo, has taught himself how to get into the house.
"He's best friends with Leo, and so he used to watch Leo push down the door handle and come and sit on the couch," Hubbs told ABC News. "And of course, he now knows how to come in, too. He just pushes down on the knob with his head and lets himself in and onto our couch."
"Goliath is our pet and now part of our family," Hubbs told The Huffington Post. "[But] we don’t let him in the house purposely. He is getting bigger every day and now spends all day in the big pasture with the other animals. We still bring him up to the backyard at night, just in case.”
Experts agree that purposefully bringing cows into domestic spaces isn't a good idea.
"Cows are profoundly emotional animals, and deeply sensitive," Kathy Stevens, founder and director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, HuffPost. "You can’t bring an animal who is going to weigh 2,500 lbs. into the house, because then you'll have a sad cow someday. Give them a big space and shower them with love inside their own roomy barn."
Indeed, Goliath now happily plays and grazes with his dog pals on the Hubbs ranch.
H/T ABC News
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