Happy Birthday Daisy!

Daisy the cow is celebrating her second birthday at a barn at the North Dakota State Fair this year. She has been the fair's adopted cow ever since being born there in 1998.

Daisy initially belonged to the fair because her mother was sent off to a dairy immediately after Daisy was born. Kristyl Wenger of Granville helped deliver the new calf, though, so fair officials decided to let her keep the little cow.

"They just gave her to me," Wenger says. "They told me all I have to do is take good care of her and bring her back to the fair every year to celebrate her birthday."

Fair officials still consider Daisy to be the Official State Fair Cow. They had a large cake set up in front of Daisy's stall with "Happy Birthday Daisy" written on it.

Daisy could only watch as people ate up the cake, but Wenger says she is a big fan another dish that would make her fellow cows moo with fright.

"She's the only cow I've ever seen that eats hamburgers," Wenger says. "She tried eating some cake, but the frosting is too sweet for her, so somebody said, 'Give her something else to eat,' and I just happened to have a hamburger in my hand."

Kristyl's mother, Karyn, says Daisy has become a part of their family. "She's the only dairy cow we have. She gets along well with people and the other animals we have. She's tried running with our horses a couple times, but they just look at her like she's stupid because she can't keep up."

It takes Karyn about two or three hours a day during the fair to take proper care of Daisy. "Daisy gets a bath, a shave and a trim for showing, and then Kristyl usually takes her for a walk at night," she says. "Daisy gets tired of being penned up all day."