Lady Annabella

I was told on Thursday when Danny came home that we had to go back to Travis' when it cooled down so we could feed a baby calf that had been born on Tuesday, that the mama had abandoned. So that night we went over and saw that she was really bad off...skinny from not eating for 2 days. Danny and I held her down and tried squirting milk down her throat, but that didn't work too well. She ended up eating a quarter of a pint of milk and lay down in the hay in the barn. The next morning Danny and I went back to Travis' to feed her again, and it wasn't too much better than the evening before. That afternoon I drove back and, like that morning, barely anything went into her. Since we still had the fence from when Beauty was here we brought her back home with us...mainly because it would be easier to feed her. Saturday morning she looked pathetic, would barely move, and wouldn't eat, so I force fed her until she was making really strange noises. Then I got a 5 gallon bucket and filled it up with water and led her to that, which she drank out of. After no luck in trying again during the evening to get her to eat, I knelt beside her and put my hands on her stomach and said a prayer, hoping for some miracle. Around 11:30 that night I noticed the lightening and heard the thunder getting closer, and saw that some severe storm were heading our way, so I went out to put her under the piece of wood we had as an overhang for shade. She looked up and as I put her under there she turned her head and grabbed at my finger, sucking on it. I went it and heated up her bottle, which she drank all of, 1/2 a nursing bottle for cows. The next morning I fed her again, and little by little drank the other half. She has a lot of obstacles to overcome, but at least she's drinking 2-3 times a day, and hopefully she'll get stronger.