REED, OKLAHOMA — It’s a dry, cold gale that sweeps across the prairie this winter, and a sometimes cruel wind near the town of Reed where a mother cow died suddenly.
Her death orphaned a 3 day old calf and left few alternatives for ranchers Mack McKaskle and father-in-law Henry J. Smith.
“Well I took a pretty good loss on her,” said Henry. “She was only about a 5 year old Charolais cow.”
“The little one would not have survived,” added McKaskle.
But the orphan calf had something in her.
She kept following anyone who came near, and running when 10 year old grand-daughter Jamie Peffer came along.
“She likes us,” said Jamie as she petted the calf.
It’s been about 3 months since Mack and Henry loaded up the calf, who Jamie named Daisy May, and took her to Jaime’s back yard in Elk City.
Jamie and her friends Keegan, Kylar, and Luke made sure Daisy finished her bottle morning and night.
The only thing Daisy didn’t get to do was sleep inside.
Longtime rancher Smith said, “This was different. This calf acted like it was part human.”
Jamie said, “When she drank her bottle, we’d give her one in the morning and one at night.”
“That had to be the friendliest calf ever,” remarked a visitor to the Smith ranch near Reed.
Jamie’s friend Luke told us, “She even nibbled on my butt once.”
Daisy May went back to the ranch not long ago.
It was time for her to be a cow again.
“So she’ll make it then?” asks a visitor.
“Oh, absolutely,” says McKaskle. “She’s the best looking bottle fed calf I’ve ever seen.”
Daisy and Jamie may be separated but the bond remains, formed by a calf who needed a friend and a girl who made room for one.
They might just be BFF’s forever.
