KY family brought a freezing calf inside from the cold. The photos are melting hearts.
When frigid temperatures, snow and ice hit Kentucky last weekend, a Montgomery County farm family welcomed a newborn calf into their living room.
Now, photos of the fluffy baby bovine cuddling on the couch with the family’s young children are getting national attention.
Tanner Sorrell, who lives in the Ruby community outside Mount Sterling, had been keeping a close eye on the mother cow, knowing she was going to give birth at any time, his wife, Macey Sorrell, said in a message to the Herald-Leader.
When he checked on the cow, he also found her newborn, only a few hours old.
“The baby was already chilled to the bone, and her umbilical cord had frozen in the cold air,” Macey Sorrell wrote.
“Knowing she wouldn’t make it through the night outside, we brought her into the house to warm up while her mama stayed behind to eat corn and hay and regain her strength,” she said. “Inside, we carefully warmed her with a blow dryer, wrapped her up, and gave her plenty of cuddles.”
“We fed her a bottle of colostrum to make sure she got the nutrients she needed. By morning, she was feeling much stronger,” Sorrell wrote.
The couple’s son Gregory, 3, named the calf Sally, after a character in one of his favorite movies, “Cars.”
“At first light, we carried her back out to the barn. As soon as her mama heard Sally moo, she came running. It was a sweet reunion — the calf went straight to nursing and hasn’t slowed down since.”
Sorrell said the family provided the mother and baby “their own cozy space filled with hay, straw, sweet feed, and fresh water, and even placed a camera so we can keep a close watch.
“Thankfully, both mama and baby are doing great and thriving.”
Sorrell posted photos of her son cuddling on the couch with Sally on her Facebook page, and one of Tanner Sorrell’s HVAC customers shared the post with WKYT.
Since then, to the family’s surprise, the story has been picked up by the Associated Press and a host of other media outlets.
“People laugh when they hear we had a cow in the house, but honestly it’s pretty common for farm families,” Macey Sorrell told the Herald-Leader. “Sometimes you’ve got bottles on the counter and a calf on the couch. It’s just part of life here.”
Sorrell said her husband’s father had died the week before, and the calf brought a much-needed diversion to the family during a difficult time.
“Bringing that little calf inside and watching the kids cuddle her… it gave us something happy to focus on,” she said in her message. “It was a small, sweet moment we really needed. It reminded us that even in hard weeks, there’s still good moments. We work hard, we take care of our animals, and we take care of each other. If something needs help, we help it. That’s how we were raised.”
“Tanner learned a lot from his papaw Charlie,” Macey Sorrell wrote. “He taught him how to farm and always said if you can save a life, you do it, no matter what it takes. We’re just carrying that on.
“There’s a lot of hard work and long nights, but there’s also a lot of heart. These animals depend on us. They’re not just livestock, they’re lives we’re responsible for.”
