Don’t you just love happy endings? We hope so because this is a story with quite the incredible happy ending – but it certainly didn’t start off that way.
A cow had been loaded up onto a two-story truck to what was most likely going to be the last place she’d ever see – the slaughterhouse. Barreling down the highway, the scared and confused cow must have sensed that she was headed for certain death and now was her chance to escape and survive.
Taking a dangerous and courageous literal leap of faith – the cow burst open the door of the truck and jumped onto the busy highway.
Miraculously, the cow, who has since been named Brianna, survived the dramatic fall, however, she wasn’t out of danger yet, because now, she was in the middle of the I-80 highway near Paterson, New Jersey.
Police were called once people noticed the strange scenario and they tried chasing the terrified cow for hours. Thankfully, it wasn’t long until a local resident heard about the commotion and knew they could help. Mike Stura, who runs Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue, was determined to help catch the scared girl.
Finally, after hours of chasing her, Brianna was cornered and placed in a harness. Stura lovingly talked to her to try and calm her down.
“We have her,” the sanctuary told its followers on Facebook. “[We] are on our way to the vet.”
Watch some footage of the nail-biting rescue in the Facebook video below then keep reading for a major surprise that Brianna had in store.
Once the vets examined her, they found that Brianna was in very healthy condition. And two days later – she had a very big surprise for the sanctuary.
The rescuers brought the lucky cow back to their sanctuary and she started to explore the fresh grass in her new home. Brianna walked around, sniffing the grass, and smelling the ground in her pen. It seemed that she was scoping out a quiet, stress-free area for one very special reason – she was pregnant.
“You look pretty good for someone who fell out of a truck,” her rescuer encouraged her while she was exploring. “Good girl, good girl.”
The rescuers wanted to make sure Brianna felt comfortable because just two days later – she’d be giving birth.
On December 29, 2018, Brianna went into labor. The doctor had to show up late so the rescuers ended up helping birth the baby calf, a job much bigger than they anticipated. Thankfully, all went smoothly and the cow gave birth to a precious baby girl named Winter.
“Brianna is now the proud mother of a beautiful baby girl named, Winter,” Skylands wrote in a Facebook post of the birth, reflecting on the drastic turn in the young cow’s life. “Brianna is a young girl, in great health, very far along in her pregnancy, and was on a transport truck that was taking her to slaughter. She was less than ten minutes away from that slaughterhouse when she flew out of the truck.”
Skylands shared a wonderful video of Winter taking her very first steps outside – which happened to be on New Year’s Day.
Both of the cows seem to be absolutely ecstatic to be in their new home and sanctuary. They also love to be around one another and are quite the adorable team. The new little family can be assured that they’ll live long happy lives at Skylands.
“It’s beautiful to watch them together,” the sanctuary wrote.
We are so incredibly happy for Brianna and Winter – their lives could have ended up so much differently had she not leaped out of that truck on that fateful day.
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