“Seeing that they trusted us seemed to build her trust in us.”
When Happy Compromise Farm + Sanctuary needed to relocate out of Oregon, they found the perfect property in New York — and were surprised to learn that it came with a single cow named Miriam.
“The New York property was a meat CSA before we moved the sanctuary there, and the owners offered us Miriam when they weren’t able to load her up for slaughter,” Eryn Leavens, executive director of Happy Compromise Farm + Sanctuary, told The Dodo. “We jumped at the chance to take her in as our first cow resident. When we arrived at the new property after a cross-country trip with 100 rescued animals, she was the only animal on the property. It felt like she had been waiting for us to arrive.”
Unfortunately, Miriam’s first five years of life weren’t easy. She’d been sleeping in the woods and didn’t have the greatest relationship with people. She was terrified of her new humans when they first arrived, and they didn’t blame her. They were determined, however, to prove to her that she was safe now.
“Her only experience with humans had been terrible, so she assumed we would be the same,” Leavens said. “However, she was very interested in the other animals we brought with us, particularly the alpacas. Seeing that they trusted us seemed to build her trust in us.”
Miriam’s new humans spent hours and hours putting in the work to win her over, and it slowly paid off. They made lots of promises about how her new life would look, and one by one, they made those promises come true.
“When we first met Miriam, we promised her that she would eventually have cow friends and that we would get her a shelter,” Leavens said. “She had been sleeping in the woods for the first five years of her life, so our first big move was to buy her a shelter. A few months later, we received a request for help with a two-year-old Jersey cow named Penelope … We said we would take her, and she became Miriam’s best friend immediately.”
Miriam absolutely adored all of the other animals at the sanctuary, but finally having another cow was incredibly special. She and Penelope were inseparable from the moment they met — and still are to this day.
Now, Miriam has a whole herd of rescued cows living with her at the sanctuary, and she couldn’t be happier. She’s learned to love and feel safe around her humans, too, and follows them around constantly. She went from being scared and alone to having more love than she knows what to do with, and her humans are so thrilled they could make her dreams come true.
