He Grew Up With Dogs And Doesn't Know He's Any Different

<p> Goliath Hubbs / Twitter </p>
<p> Goliath Hubbs / Twitter </p>

They may be brothers from udder mothers, but Goliath and Leonidas have sparked a friendship as unlikely as it is poignant.

Goliath the cow wants to be just like his Great Dane pal. As in, just like him.

Lounging on the couch, eating from a dog bowl and, naturally, appreciating a well-placed scratch behind the ear.

You know, dog stuff.

We wrote about the cow who wanted to be a dog last month, after this charming scene made the rounds on Reddit.

"My cow thinks he's a dog," the accompanying text read. "We left the door open for five minutes."

Since then, the story has gone viral on social media, while capturing headlines around the world.

"I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a dog," Shaylee Hubbs told ABC News. "He was raised with our three dogs, and he's around them every day. They chase and play together, he watches how they eat their dog food and drink water from their bowls and copies them and he even lays in their dog beds."

Goliath and Leonidas at play.YouTube/Inside Edition

He's technically a "drop calf" - a term used for calves who are taken away from their mothers immediately after birth. Such calves are often sent to slaughter immediately.

As animal welfare website Free From Harm put it, "to a dairy farmer, a baby cow is competition for his mother's milk and therefore an unnecessary cost."

The Hubbs family rescued Goliath from that fate. He was just a day old when he arrived, feeble and unable to feed himself.

The family dog, Leonidas, took it upon himself to care for the calf, Shaylee Hubbs told CBS News.

"He would lay down with the sick little cow for hours just to keep him company," she said. "As the cow became more active he began to try to 'nurse' my male Great Dane."

Today, she says, "Goliath is our pet and now part of our family."

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