An emotional reunion between Dad and his Girl

"This is bloody wonderful, it's a wonderful gift," says Ken Simmons as he sees his cow, Girl, for the first time in more than a month.
A month apart from a cow may not seem like a big deal, until you consider the unique relationship between Mr Simmons and Girl, his 37-year-old jersey-cross and constant companion.
In early January Mr Simmons suffered a stroke, which put him in a wheelchair and separated him for the first time in more than two decades from the cow he almost named Silverside. On Friday Mr Simmons and Girl were reunited with the help of Wairarapa Hospital staff, a wheelchair taxi and his friends.
Just two days into the New Year Mr Simmons had the stroke, and the most devastating aspect of it is not medical it's emotional.
When he saw Girl again on Friday he welled up with heartfelt emotion and beckoned her to him.
"Come see dad, c'mon, where's my baby? Where's dad's bub?" he said coaxing Girl with an apple.
At first Girl was a bit apprehensive, having never seen her dad in a wheelchair, but soon the pair's special bond shone through and she was eating from his hand as he stroked her face.
"I've done some strange things in all the years I've done this job but this takes the cake!" Wairarapa Hospital health technician Jo Goodin said.
Mr Simmons spent the morning with Girl getting out of his new hospital routine and back in to the old routine he's shared with Girl over the years.
Before the stroke Mr Simmons would rise at 8am and every day rain, hail or shine would hop on his pushbike and pedal half an hour into the countryside to spend time with his Girl.
After the Wairarapa Times-Age reported on this odd couple's sweet country tale in September the story went national culminating in a stint on TV's Close Up for the Carterton returned serviceman and Girl the pair even went global, ending up featured on the front page of Dutch farming newspaper Agrarisch Dagblad.
Beaming out across the nation the media spotlight led to a stream of goodwill from people touched by the unlikely story of the symbiotic relationship between man and cow.
"People sent in money, chocolates, cards and even a pillow with a cow embroidered on it," Mr Simmons said.
Before Friday's visit we visited Mr Simmons in hospital; pictures and newspaper clippings of Girl adorn the walls at his bedside.
When he spoke about his dear old bovine belle the elderly war veteran choked up with genuine feeling.
"You emotional old chook!" Sharon Kitto, Mr Simmons friend and caregiver - of both beast and man - since the stroke, said.
"Girl's good as gold but she's missing her dad, he is too, but the pictures are getting him motivated. Every time he has a down day he tells me he goes and looks across at her photos on the wall," Ms Kitto said.
Ms Kitto (who calls Mr Simmons 'Charlie Brown') has been visiting him every couple of days at the hospital. It was Ms Kitto's auntie that alerted emergency services to Mr Simmon's critical condition when a local boy delivering pamphlets noticed his legs sticking out of his kitchen in his small flat.
"On the morning of the stroke I'd been out with Girl as we usually do, my left foot started dragging, it just got progressively worse," Mr Simmons said.
"After that Sharon made an offer to look after Girl at her place. Sharon got a horse float and old Girl just walked on like a lamb she hasn't been on a float for years," Mr Simmons said.
When asked about his stay in hospital Mr Simmons reveals he is definitely not a fan of convalescence.
"Hospital? Another 25 hours would be too long the food? You must be joking," he said.
Mr Simmons sat with Girl as she had her long awaited breakfast of molasses and nuts.
Mr Simmons had asked Ms Kitto not to feed Girl before he arrived on Friday.
"She's very ladylike isn't she Charlie Brown?" Ms Kitto said.
"She's dad's Girl,"he said.