A large Holstein cow with black and white markings stands inside a barn, surrounded by wooden walls and straw bedding. The setting suggests daytime in spring or summer. 3:28
We Love Animals channel icon We Love AnimalsOriginal creator 3.8M views Save

Wind chimes guide a blind rescue cow home

For 19 years, Helen lived in a stall on a dairy farm and knew little else. She was born blind, and she had never grazed in a field or had a cow friend. more

The farmer who kept her spent a lot of time with her, and the two got close. When she could no longer give milk, he didn't want her sent off the way dairy cows usually are. He kept her a few more years and looked for a place that could take her.

That place turned out to be Uncle Neil's, a sanctuary that said yes. Helen arrived timid, with a whole new world to take in. For the first few days, her new people talked to her very gently, so she would learn they were friends and wouldn't hurt her.

Then they built her a world she could find by sound. Helen got her own run-in shed, which they call her room. A solar-powered fountain went into her water trough, so she can always hear the trickle and know where her water is. Wind chimes went up all around the pasture to help her find her way back to her room when she wants to rest.

There is also a brush out in the pasture for her to rub against, and she really, really, really loves it. A camera lets them keep an eye on her at any hour. Of everything in Helen's story, these small touches are what people praised most, and one fan called the chimes and the fountain ingenious.

One day, one of her caretakers was out cleaning the pasture. Helen walked up to him and threw herself onto him, rubbing her head and her whole body all over him. That was her way of hugging, they say. It was the day they knew she felt safe and happy with them.

A large Holstein cow with black and white markings stands inside a barn, surrounded by wooden walls and straw bedding. The setting suggests daytime in spring or summer. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
For 19 years, Helen lived in a stall on a dairy farm and knew little else.

Now Helen leads with love, in their words. She has made a few cow friends and licks them all the time, and she licks and smooches her people too. She is up on her feet all day, grazing and taking in the pasture. She thinks music is beautiful, they say, so they play her favorite song for her all the time, the Hawaiian version of the old song from The Wizard of Oz.

And she likes to sit or stand under the wind chimes, the same ones that help her find her way back to her room, and listen to them ring in the breeze.

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