A Tale of Two Calves

Two recent additions to the hooved population of the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch have become fast friends after both escaped near-death experiences. Close in age at the time of their arrival, the two were placed together so neither would be isolated in their formative months.

The friendship would not be at all unusual were it not for one thing: one is a bison, and the other an Angus cow. Typically these animals do not have a chance to interact, much less become friends.


The bison calf’s story begins on Mother’s Day 2005, when his mother died. The rancher was faced with a hungry, needy two- or three-day-old baby and called friends to ask if they were interested raising him. Surviving without a mother is difficult and requires a great deal of care. And, even if the rancher had the time needed to nurse the orphaned calf, the baby would have eventually faced the same fate as the others on the ranch: be sold for meat or for a hunt. The rancher was willing to give the abandoned infant a new lease on life—if someone else was willing to invest the time and energy.

Fortunately the De Carrasco family was up for the challenge and accepted the rancher’s offer. When Oksana De Carrasco, wife and mother of two, heard of the calf’s dilemma, she recalls, “We figured we would take care of him and decide what to do when he started to get bigger—if he made it.” She and her husband drove their minivan to pick up the baby bison. Oksana held him in the back seat with their nine- and six-year-old sons. Arriving home in Alpine, Texas, about 30 miles away, they first tried to put the calf in the kitchen. Realizing that he was bigger than he looked, they took apart their front gate and made a temporary pen. By then, he was becoming weak, and it took an hour or so to get him to take a bottle. The family named him “Becerito,” “baby cow” in Spanish.

The following day, Becerito was on his feet again, and the De Carrascos built a bigger pen and made him a straw bed. Oksana sought opinion from local veterinarians about the best formula to use for his milk and, after receiving a range of recommendations, settled on a combination of them. “We kept experimenting with the amounts and timing of his bottles,” she shares. “Within two or three days, he recognized us and called to us. We took him for daily walks. During the days, he would stay on the lawn in the front yard, and, as night fell, he would sleep in his pen in the back yard.” Astonishingly, the family lives in the downtown district on a busy street of Alpine, just a block from the train station.

One night when Becerito was around three months old, a pack of dogs attacked him in his pen, inflicting multiple wounds and biting off part of his bottom lip. Oksana washed him and applied medicine made for horse and cow injuries, and the family put up extra wire around the pen to prevent future attacks. The following weeks, she and her sons slept with him in his pen.

Becerito recovered well and learned how to turn on the water faucet in the front yard and open the kitchen door. As he grew, so did his appetite, and he would chase Oksana for his bottle, even knocking her down several times. After finishing a bottle, he would fall asleep with her sons on the lawn and put his head in Oksana’s lap. Becerito’s favorite place became the boys’ school room, and she often found him there, asleep with the cats.

“He got incredibly strong very fast, and we knew we had to find a home for him as soon as possible,” Oksana said. “We had many offers from ranches, but I didn’t feel that any of them were appropriate for him. My mother came across a book on Black Beauty Ranch, and I thought that was the right place for him, even though it was far away and we would not be able to see him.”

Due to the De Carrasco’s compassion and dedication to Becerito, he not only survived, but has a permanent home at the Black Beauty Ranch. The De Carrascos have given a new meaning to the term “family values.”


Meanwhile, a Black Angus calf mysteriously appeared on Black Beauty Ranch property back in spring 2005—with a broken jaw. After checking with local ranchers to see if anyone was missing a calf and finding no one to claim her, the Ranch staff contacted a local veterinarian, who wired the broken bones in the little calf’s jaw. Surgery was the only hope for her if she would ever be able to eat, and, even with an operation, there were no guarantees. Staff diligently bottle-fed the calf for weeks. Although she couldn’t move her jaw, she was able to suckle milk, fortunately all she needed due to her young age. She gained strength and grew rapidly, and staff named her Peaches.

Gradually, Peaches was able to move her jaw and begin eating solid foods. Her growth accelerated with the ability to consume on her own, and she was completely weaned off her bottle when her jaw was healed and she was able to graze. Though she had a tough start, Peaches got through the trauma and recovery with flying colors and has no trouble eating all she needs now. Had her jaw been broken as an older animal, she definitely would not have survived. The fact that she was an infant when the injury happened made her open to adopting humans as her caretakers, and her suckling instinct, present only during infancy, allowed her to take in milk despite her broken jaw.

Becerito and Peaches were first introduced to each other in fall 2005 when each was strong enough for the other’s company and have been together ever since then in a temporary pen. Soon, they will both be allowed into the pastures of the ranch, where they will be around adult bison and cattle for the first time in their lives. When they reach their sexual maturity, each calf will seek out their own species, but until then, it is likely that this pair will be seen grazing together for many months to come.

posted March 23, 2006