'Seeing Eye Cow' Helps Blind Steer Find Way

BUSKIRK, NY — Ollie got a tough break when he was born. The little calf couldn’t see or hear, and his mother rejected him. But instead of going to the hamburger factory, Ollie now will live out his life at a Buskirk, New York, farm sanctuary where the most remarkable thing happens every day — a cow named Sunny comes running when Ollie becomes befuddled and loses his way in the pasture and bellows for help.

Ollie and Sunny’s amazing story began on a New York farm. A Jersey cow named Mrs. Clover looked out for Ollie's own mother shunned him, and Ollie and her heifer calf, Sunny, became fast friends. Mrs. Clover eventually died, and then the farm went up for sale.

What would become of Ollie and Sunny?

HeartsHerd Animal Sanctuary in Rensselaer County, New York, answered the urgent call and offered permanent homes for both Ollie and Sunny, where they joined a menagerie of other animals — horses, llamas, pigs, chickens, cats and dogs among them.

Tracy Muscatello, who owns and operates the shelter, told WTEN-TV she couldn’t turn Ollie and Sunny away. Their bond is beyond anything she has ever seen.

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“We will be a few yards away and he will start mooing,” Muscatello told the station. “Then it will grow a bit more desperate. She’ll slowly make her way over.

“She never fails him,” she said. “She truly is his seeing eye cow.”

Patch reached out to Muscatello for more on this story. We’ll update the post if we hear back.

» For more on this story, go to WTEN-TV.

File photo via Shutterstock