Creature comforts: DuPage fair champions thrive with animals' healing power

James Bend and Megan Cotte may not realize it, but they represent the heart and soul of the DuPage County Fair and the healing power of animals.

On opening day of the fair, James' mom and her cousin cried tears of pride as the 9-year-old boy claimed the grand champion prize for his lamb named Bob. Even the judge started to tear up.

James has autism, and his mom wasn't sure how he would react to the sensory overload of his first time in the show ring. But nothing was going to stand in the way of James and his purple ribbon.

"That's all he wanted was his ribbon," his mom, Meredith, said.

Though there's a 12-year age difference, James and Cotte share many things in common: Both have won top awards at the fair, both politely educate suburbanites who are practically tourists in the livestock barns at the Wheaton fairgrounds, and both work long hours tending to their chores.

Most importantly, both have thrived with the therapeutic routine of caring for their show animals.

At 21, Cotte dispenses pearls of wisdom about her life with lupus and the joys of the fair, where's she's cultivated her agrarian interests into her education - she has an equine biomechanics degree - and her professional goals of starting an animal-assisted therapy business. She and her mom live in St. Charles but raise rescue horses, goats, rabbits and poultry near South Barrington.

"I just fell in love with taking care of animals that can't speak for themselves," Cotte said.

Her responsibilities - feeding, cleaning, exercising and rehabilitating animals saved from the slaughterhouse - have developed her stamina and strength. But there's more to it: Animals don't care she has lupus, an autoimmune disorder that causes debilitating pain and inflammation, and they don't judge her.

"People make fun of me. They're like, 'Oh, you're a barn girl.' But you know what? That's what life is about," Cotte said. "If you can find what you love and do a good job of it, more power to you."

She's clearly doing a good job as an exhibitor in the open class division (she's graduated beyond the age limits of 4-H). She's prepared goats for the fair on behalf of Lambs Farm in Green Oaks, a nonprofit campus that provides vocational and recreational programs for people with developmental disabilities.

One of the goats, in the dairy wether class, won the top honor Thursday, adding to her haul of ribbons that include an overall grand champion title for her duck. Her red South African Boer goat, Samantha, previously won grand champion two years in a row.

"Look at these young kids. They're doing awesome today," said Cotte, supporting her younger peers in the goat competition. "Oh, that's such a pretty goat."

Cotte has an encyclopedic mind on the hallmarks of goat breeds, but some visitors are so far removed from the farm they've asked her if there are baby deer in the herds.

"Actually, we probably get that question too many times than I can count," Cotte said.

The goat barn has a mix of dairy- and meat-producing breeds, delightful creatures that are hardly picky eaters - one nibbled at a reporter's recorder Thursday - and nod off to sleep while standing up.

"They're playful, but then they turn into very docile animals," Cotte said.

James' mom said it's a good thing Bob and his pen companion "Mr. Wool" are lovable sheep because her son has such a bond with farm animals at his family's Clear View Farm in DeKalb County.

The first was a hen James named Red Feather. A Purina company publication featured their attachment and James' habit of reading to the chicken. His mom know it sounds unbelievable, but her son's connection with his "special chicken" helped him overcome communication challenges.

"By golly, that was his best friend until she passed away," she said.

After Red Feather's death, James told his mom he wanted to show sheep and follow in her footsteps. The barns were a lot fuller with exhibitors when the Naperville native was a kid entering sheep, cattle and hogs in fair competitions.

"We still want our kids to have similar memories," Meredith said. "And for us, it's not about winning or the money or anything. It's about having the experience, and then having the responsibility."

And most 9-year-olds don't have that purple ribbon. James' mom was so proud after his turn in the show ring that she had to have a picture she already knows will appear on the family's Christmas card. Also in the frame?

"We took our Christmas picture," she said, "with a sheep."