February 26, 2021

Collapsed and faint with pain, a huge female water buffalo lay dying in the rubble on the side of a road after an accident left her with a terrible leg fracture and horrific wound.

Almost lifelessly inert, our rescue team, even with the help of several passers-by, had no way to lift her so we had to call for a crane to lift her to our ambulance and to safety.

Her pain was unimaginable, but this enormous buffalo was too hurt to resist, and we rushed her back to our hospital, where we immediately began to do whatever we could to save such a sweet soul.

We called her Amelia because the name sounded delicate and feminine–exactly what we saw in this giant beauty. For weeks she couldn’t stand on her own. Teams of sometimes ten volunteers and staff routinely stood together for the challenge of lifting her to her feet so that her blood circulation stayed healthy and her other limbs could bear weight. Slowly, slowly, the wound itself healed, but the fracture could never knit together properly and, permanently disabled, frustration showed in her eyes.

But after a few months, something changed for Amelia. It wasn’t just her improved mobility. It was something much bigger: Betty. With gorgeous buffalo Betty by her side, there is nothing Amelia can’t do, though she does it all a little slowly. Almost three years after her accident, meet Amelia–and Betty, her adoring friend and guardian angel.