Newborn calf abandoned in dumpster gets another chance at life with forever family

HALIFAX COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ/Gray News) - A newborn calf that was abandoned inside a dumpster in the freezing cold now has another chance at life.

Mike Lloyd made what he thought was a routine trip Nov. 13 to take his trash to the dump in South Boston, Virginia, but it was a trip that turned out to be anything but ordinary, WDBJ reports.

“I was about to get in my pickup truck and drive off, but I heard something making a little bit of a scraping noise,” Mike Lloyd said.

At the bottom of one of the bins, he found a calf – with the umbilical cord still attached – kicking the bin with her hooves.

“You could tell that she hadn’t been born but a couple of hours. I didn’t think she was going to make it,” Mike Lloyd said.

He called his dad, Red Lloyd, for help, and they never thought twice about taking her home.

“I didn’t know if we were going to be able to do anything for her, but I knew we had to do something,” Red Lloyd said.

What could have been a nightmare ending for the little one turned into a field of dreams. Mike Lloyd and his parents nursed the calf back to health with warm cow’s milk and a cozy place to sleep in the fenced-in back yard.

“I should have gotten the truck that day. It was cold. I literally was almost in my pickup truck, but I changed my mind. God was a part of it. He had plans for me to find that calf. He had plans for us to raise it,” Mike Lloyd said.

Katie Jo, their first pet cow, is now part of the family. At just 3 weeks old, she’s already best friends with their beagle, Lana.

“The beagle never had any puppies of her own, so she just pretty much treats her like she’s a pup,” Mike Lloyd said.

Along with Lana, Mike Lloyd and his parents have all fallen utterly in love with Katie Jo.

“It’s hard not to love something like this. I always have. I just don’t know why nobody else couldn’t. Why would anybody want to even dream of throwing a little baby like this in a dumpster?” Red Lloyd said.

Although Katie Jo is always on the move, she’s stuck with the Lloyds until even after the cows come home.

“She’s had such tough luck I don’t see giving her to anybody that’s going to eat her or sell her,” Mike Lloyd said.

“Nothing will ever happen to her, and she’ll never go nowhere long as she’s with me,” Red Lloyd said.