American Ryan Phillips and his wife rescued a motherless three-day-old calf. Because of a developmental defect, the little cow will never be able to give milk, so she was unwanted on the farm where she was born. Her new owners took her to their farm and named her Jenna.
“Jenna’s personality has always been as full and vibrant as she seems today,” Phillips told The Dodo. “Because I spent 24 hours a day with her … I think she thought she was another human and has this attitude that anything she wants to do, she can do it with me.”
Soon the care and love of her new owners did their work – Jenna began to actively grow up to be a healthy, active, and very sweet cow. She has grown quickly, and already weighs 450 kilograms – but she remains small at heart.
Jenna’s daily need is the affection and care of her owners, especially Ryan. She loves her owner and is so grateful to him that she is willing to spend hours in his arms.
“She will find us at any window in the house and moo to us endlessly until we come out and give her hugs and scratch her or run around the yard,” Phillips said.
“One of her favorite things from early on would be to put her head up against my leg and push it into it while I wrap my arms around her neck and scratch her,” Phillips said. “That’s her way of hugging … sometimes it lasts up to 20 minutes of her needing this cow-version of a hug.”
“They have tongues that are kinda like cat tongues but they’re huge and a lot more forceful,” Phillips said. “It’s pretty rough, but you learn to love it because it’s their way of expressing that you’re part of the herd.”
Jenna has been so used to thanking her owner for giving her a new life ever since she was a little girl, and Ryan doesn’t mind this kind of love, because he loves Jenna so much!