One day, out of nowhere, a small, scrappy cow appeared on our property. He looked young — about half the size of our other cows — and he had a tag in his ear, but we couldn’t get close enough to read it.

He had clearly jumped multiple fences to get to us (we later counted seven) — and as much as we wished we could just keep him, California law says otherwise. In our state, even if a cow wanders onto your land, you’re required to make every effort to return it to its rightful owner.

So, we called our cattleman neighbors, who came on horseback to rope him safely. Once we were able to get close and read his tag, we contacted the owner... and that’s when the story changed.

The owner told us that this was a “dwarf cow” and that he was just going to kill him. We were stunned. That’s when we asked if we could buy him instead — and to our surprise, the man simply said: “You can have him.”

That’s the moment we named him Lucky.

Turns out, Lucky wasn’t a dwarf after all — he was just a slow grower. Today, he’s just as big as the rest of the herd, tipping the scales at well over 1,200 pounds.

Lucky came to us by chance, but we know in our hearts he was searching for safety — and he found it.

Donate directly to this animal’s care or support the whole A & K crew by clicking here — every little bit makes a big difference!