When Willow was two months old I became the mother of what we thought at the time was a preemie calf...
4 hours after she was born in our vet room being cleaned and cared for!
Angus helping clean Fiona
She was so tiny she could not stand and my dad had to run the buzzards off of her because she was as good as dead already. I was a new single mother with a new business struggling to keep my head above water stressed to the max. Usually on the farm im the one that has a special knack for bringing special needs, sick or injured calfs back to life. But I already had such a loadon me my dad didn't know if I was up to it but of course I demanded he bring her home to me! She lived inside with me for two weeks when we start to realize there's something very special something very different about her!
She wasn't just a preemie you had too much hair to be born that early but she was nothing but bones. A Normal calf is born 50 to 100 pounds and she was 20 pounds. Her head was shaped funny and her behavior was very odd. We start to think that maybe Fiona Hope Kirkpatrick was a darwf so we had the vet come out and confirmed what we thought is true Fiona is in fact a dwarf! We stop talking about her on social media because she was at High risk of not making it and we didn't want to break anyone's heart.
first time she stood up
I've worked with Fiona every day twice today and she's now on the up and up and getting to a good place. but will always battle health conditions and also has extreme anxiety. Everyone thinks it's adorable to own a baby dwarf calf but it's not fun and games she is not pet and will never be beef The honest truth is that she's quite the financial and time burden but we love her and as farmers we believe it's our duty to take care of the animals ALL animals not just the profitable ones.
Our family has always taken care of the misfits we never gave up on a baby to this day. We once helped a calf that had been stepped on and was paralyzed temporarily the vet said put her down she will never make it but we did not she grew up and we still have her to this day perfectly healthy. Because people do not realize the burden Fiona ismultiple people try to buy her from me but with her extreme anxiety there's just no way I could. I've worked with her twice a day every day for five months and she still freaks out on me sometimes. I cant imagine the fit she would through if I sold her to a complete stranger.
It Has been such a hard journey and SomedaysI want to give up because to work so hard with her to have days where she runs away from me is heartbreaking. And there's timesfinally get somewhere with her and see a great improvement only to walk in one day and have her shaking in the corner. As she gets older and a little bit bigger she's only going to be harder to work with and harder to control it's gonna take a while but I have seen great improvement in her and I'm so determined she has been my biggest challenge yet.
But she has encouraged me to do what I been wanting to do for a long time and my dad is selflessly dedicate land to this project! Build Fiona and friends a place for misfit animals and a place for kids to explore the outdoors!
Up date since I wrote this Fiona is doing better than ever but its obvious she needs companionship with an an animal her own size and more sun and grass daily!
