Ginger and her calf won't become burgers

[The1calledTKE]

Ginger, a neighborly bovine with a taste for Rice Krispie treats and dinner leftovers, has been spared from possibly becoming a meal herself.

She was headed for the stockyards earlier this week. Her owner was being forced to sell off some livestock.

Forsyth County resident JoAnne Leach pleaded Ginger's case over a widely read community Web site, and community activist Lionel Stutz sent out 150 e-mails.

"I really do not find cows very interesting, but Ginger is different," Leach wrote in her appeal for the 5-year-old breeder cow and her unborn calf.

Over the pasture fence in Forsyth's Ducktown community, Leach discovered something unusual about her four-footed next-door neighbor. "She'd come for a treat or visits when you called her and let you pet her neck. She helped dispose of our apples and pears this summer and enjoys dinner leftovers," she said.

On Saturday afternoons Ginger follows Leach and her husband, Ken, up and down the pasture fence, keeping them company as they trim shrubs. She puts an inquisitive nose in their pockets in search of treats.

"She has those really wonderful eyes. I can peer out of my bedroom window to see her over there waiting for us to come outside," Leach wrote. "She would be perfect for someone with a pasture where she can roam or a petting farm."

Marsha and Page Lathem responded, offering Ginger their pasture in Cherokee County's Toonigh community.

"I've never had a cow, but we have a pasture and other animals. She can come here and hang out with our old horse and goats. People in our neighborhood walk by and feed the horse and goats, so Ginger and her calf will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood," Lathem said.

Ginger's owner, Larry Shadburn of Cumming, who raised and hand-fed Ginger and her sisters, said he doesn't want to sell the cows. But he said he needs to reduce his livestock because the drought-dried pasture will no longer provide enough grazing for all of them.

He said all of them are pregnant and probably would be bought as breeder cows. But there's no guarantee.

Leach said she lost sleep thinking of the alternative. "I had to know this cow's destiny," she said.

Shadburn is selling Ginger for $475. The Lathems will pay $375, and the Leaches will pay $100 and provide transportation to Ginger's new grazing ground.

She goes to her new home Monday.