JAFFREY — A calf that was found roaming on Peterborough Street in June has found a loving home with the Baird family of Brook Street, where the animal is now a family pet.

After police found the calf loose near the Peterborough town line over the summer, Lee Sawyer took the calf in at his farm on Nutting Road in Jaffrey because no one came forward to claim the loose animal. On Jan. 12, the calf’s new owners, Jerome and Heather Baird, explained how they and their three children, Cailyn, 9, Caleb, 12, and Colby, 16, had come to love the calf they call “Buddy.”

When Cailyn Baird first spotted the calf at Sawyer’s farm, she told her father, Jerome, that she had to have him. At first, Baird was skeptical about the prospect of adding a calf to the family’s list of pets, which include two goats and a cat. He said he asked himself at the time, “What the heck are we going to do with a cow?”

But one day in mid-September, Sawyer approached Baird, who works for his father’s paving company in Jaffrey, about doing a patch for his driveway.

“We did a little bartering,” Baird said.

Sawyer got his driveway patched and the Bairds got a new pet Jersey weighing 275 pounds. Now, Buddy is 484 pounds, about half of what a full-grown male Jersey weighs, Baird said. When it’s grown, the castrated calf will be considered an ox.

Initially, Buddy slept with the goats in their pen, but he now has his own digs on Brook Street.

“We had a garden and a garden shed. Now, we have a Buddy and a Buddy shed,” said Baird.

After they adopted Buddy, the family learned he had wandered away from his previous owners, a Jaffrey family, who had also been keeping him as a pet. But it seems Buddy was too much for his first owners to handle.

“He was a little monster at first. Now, we’ve got him tamed,” Baird said. “Out of all the cows, Jersey’s are the friendliest. ... They’re just like a dog.”

Heather Baird said the family takes Buddy for walks in the neighborhood, located near Route 124, but they use a halter, instead of a leash.

When the family isn’t home, Buddy is free to roam in his fenced pasture, push his bucket around and play with a tethered ball that hangs from a pole inside the fence. When school and work are over, the family gathers to feed, water and play with Buddy.

“When you’re having a bad day, he can cheer you up,” said Heather.

There are no plans to eat Buddy.

“You can’t eat a family member,” Heather said. “A Jersey is not a beef cow, so there’s no reason to eat him, unless he becomes naughty.”

The family has put Buddy to work, though.

“He pulled our Christmas tree out of the woods this year,” Heather said.

Jerome Baird said he is hoping Buddy can help him haul the firewood too.

First and foremost, though, Buddy is a Baird.

“He’s going to have a good home,” Jerome said.