JUNCTION CITY, Kan. - Bianca thinks she is one of the family dogs. She plays, curls up on the back porch and occasionally tries to sneak into the house with them. One problem: Bianca is a buffalo.

"She tries to get inside all the time," says Jane Eyestone, who admits she occasionally lets Bianca in.

The one-month-old bison was abandoned by her mother after birth. Since then Eyestone and her family have been raising Bianca on their ranch near Milford Lake in rural Junction City.

The Eyestones keep Bianca in their yard, separated by a fence from the field where the rest of their buffalo roam.

Jane's 13-year-old daughter, Caitlin, bottle feeds Bianca four times a day, including breakfast at 5:30 a.m.

"It's an honor," Caitlin says. "One in a million gets to do this job. (But) I'm stuck, because I'm not a morning person."

Bianca drinks about a quart of lamb replacer with an egg mixed into it.

"Lamb milk is richer than cow's milk, it has more nutrients, minerals and protein," says Caitlin's father, Rick.

Caitlin's 8-year-old sister, Sydney, says she's lucky because she can play with Bianca without having to get up early.

The Eyestones believe Bianca was born at the same time as another calf. The other cow's calf walked in front of Bianca's mother before Bianca could get up. Both mothers followed the other baby, leaving Bianca alone crying in the field.

Jane and Rick saw one of the bulls toss a crying Bianca into the air and quickly intervened. They loaded her into a front loader and tried three times to get Bianca's mother to accept her, but with no success. They decided to bring Bianca back to the house for awhile.

"For now, we are her herd, along with the dogs," Rick says.

Bianca, who looks like a cow's calf, weighs about 50 pounds now. The Eyestones plan to wait until she's about 5 months old and try to re-introduce her to the herd.

"It won't be easy," Rick says. "It's a family herd and she'll be the new person."

Within six months, she'll weigh about 200 pounds and have horns. As she becomes more dominant, she'll become a danger to the children and the dogs.

At that point, she'll become part of the herd. But the Eyestones say they'll always cherish her and make sure she never ends up at the slaughterhouse.