Goliath is an 8-week-old calf. He was rescued by Shaylee Hubbs after she learned the dairy farm he lived on was planning on slaughtering him. She brought the calf to her large ranch in Danville, California, where horses, chickens, goats, sheep and alpacas also live. Hubbs told ABC News that the young calf was “so weak and so small that he couldn’t stand and you could pick him up very easily.” The family nursed him back to health. Goliath has even bonded with other animals that live on the farm: the dogs.
The calf has bonded so well with the dogs that Hubbs is convinced he thinks he’s one. “I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a dog,” Hubbs told ABC News. “He was raised with our three dogs, and he’s around them every day. They chase and play together, he watches how they eat their dog food and drink water from their bowls and copies them and he even lays in their dog beds. He even loves scratches on his neck around his ear.”
According to ABC News, Goliath has also learned how to get into the house, thanks to watching Leonidas, Hubbs’ 2-year-old Great Dane. “He’s best friends with Leo, and so he used to watch Leo push down the door handle and come and sit on the couch. And of course, he now knows how to come in, too. He just pushes down on the knob with his head and lets himself in and onto our couch.”
Leo, for his part, acted as a surrogate mother to Goliath, which is probably one of the reasons the calf now thinks he’s a dog.
“[Leo] would lick the little cow on the face and try to nudge him to stand up,” Hubbs said, according to ABC News. “He would lay down with the sick, little cow for hours just to keep him company.”
Do you think Goliath will ever realize he’s not a dog?
