We rescued Daisy in the winter of 2021, on a freezing afternoon right before the forecast called for snow. We were scared that if we left her any longer in such deplorable conditions, she would die there. She lived in a tiny dilapidated pen with no shelter, where mud went up to her knees. Daisy was extremely malnourished, and was only being fed uncooked rice. She had just given birth, and all her babies were sold on Craigslist. Her. “owner” couldn’t stand the idea of her going to a rescue and only wanted to give her to someone who would slaughter her. The only way we knew we could get her out of there was to make a new email address, respond to the craigslist ad, and pretend we wanted to breed and eat her. Typing that out almost killed me.

Earlier that year, we had rescued Buttercup, who was struggling to bond with her pasture mates Miss Piggy, Piggers, and Big Baby, who were already extremely close after spending their whole lives together.