Dexter & Dee Dee’s Story
Dexter and Dee Dee were found in an oil field with their umbilical cords still attached. Dexter was hiding under some piping, while Dee Dee was discovered in the field, covered in cactus thorns. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.
Roxann and her husband Harlen, who rescued Dexter and Dee Dee, shared their story.
Harlen works in the oil field and one day, while checking things, he came across little Dexter. The calf was under some piping, not moving, and still had his umbilical cord attached. Harlen, thinking Dexter was dead, went to get a shovel from his truck to bury him. To his amazement, when he went to pick him up, he saw Dexter’s eyes open. The calf was so weak he couldn’t even hold his head up. Harlen placed Dexter in his truck and drove around hundreds, if not thousands, of acres on the farm, hoping to find his herd or his owners, but to no avail. Knowing that Dexter would die if left alone, Harlen called Roxann, and together they decided they couldn’t let that happen. They quickly learned how to tube-feed Dexter because he had no sucking reflexes. After about three days of tube-feeding him every four hours around the clock, Dexter finally started taking a bottle, and from there, he began to thrive. There were a few instances of constipation, but good old fleet enemas did the trick, and Dexter flourished.
Just as life seemed to return to normal with their two rescue dogs, Sampson and Delilah, their three rescue cats, Gracie, Oreo, and Keebler, and their new rescue calf Dexter, another surprise awaited them.
Incredibly, Harlen had a similar encounter at work with Dee Dee. She was in better shape, with more strength and less malnourishment than Dexter, but she still had her umbilical cord attached. She had also fallen into a cactus, leaving her legs and body covered in cactus thorns, and she had ticks all over her ears. The ticks were easy to remove, but the cactus thorns were another story. While the visible ones were easily pulled out, some had been pushed in so far that they could only be found by petting her and feeling for them under the skin. Some thorns were over an inch and a half long, piercing one side of her leg and coming out the other. These had to be carefully dug out with tweezers, a process that took days, if not a week, but eventually, all the thorns were removed. Dee Dee was also tube-fed for the first day, but she caught on to the bottle faster than Dexter, and soon, she too began to thrive, both physically and in the company of the other animals.
As they settled into life with their growing animal family, Roxann and Harlen quickly realized that Dexter and Dee Dee could jump—and they could jump high and hard. The situation became more challenging when they had to close the doggy door. Living in town without a barn, they only had a fenced-in backyard, which wasn’t enough to contain these adventurous calves. Dexter and Dee Dee learned to use the doggy door with the other animals, going in and out as they pleased, but when it was too hot or raining, they were inside the house—on the furniture, glass tables, and even on the bed. Roxann knew this arrangement wouldn’t work for long, as it was only a matter of time before one of the animals got hurt.
They made many calls to vets, ranchers, and others recommended by the vets, but the response was always the same—Dexter and Dee Dee would eventually be sent to slaughter or used for breeding, which was unacceptable to Roxann and Harlen.
Desperate to find a better solution, Roxann searched for animal sanctuaries and found Renee and Tommy at Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. She liked their story and felt confident that her babies would have the life she couldn’t provide. Within days of talking, Renee and Tommy agreed to take in Dexter and Dee Dee, even though they were still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.
On Monday, October 9, 2017, Roxann, Harlen, and their daughter Madisen loaded Dexter and Dee Dee into their Tahoe and made the 6 1/2-hour drive from San Angelo to Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. Upon arrival, they were greeted by Tommy and the staff, and the calves were placed into their quarantine pen, where they immediately started gorging on hay and grass. The family got to meet many of the sanctuary’s chickens, roosters, and cows, but unfortunately not Renee, who was on another rescue mission to save Liberty and her calf—a fact that made Roxann admire her even more.
Roxann and Harlen are confident that Renee and Tommy will provide the best care for Dexter and Dee Dee and that the calves will bring joy to them as well as to the visitors of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. As they left, Roxann expressed her gratitude and love for the sanctuary, wishing them all the best in their rescues and in life.
