Lamb gets gift of life from a dog

John Harrison's terrier Whisky with her adopted lamb

A lamb, nicknamed Lambo, born out of season on a Shropshire farm has been adopted by a terrier.

The little dog, called Whisky shared its basket with the sickly newborn after the lamb's mother rejected it.

Farmer John Harrison from Whixall was astonished to find the ewe and her surprise baby in a shed when he went to give his sheep their evening feed.

The ewe did not want to know the youngster so John took her into his house to be bottle fed.

Most lambs are born in the spring, so John was amazed when he saw the tiny lamb which was born in the first week of September.

A September-born lamb is very unusual, but not unheard of

He said it was a very unusual occurrence: "It was more dead than alive when we found it and we brought it up to house because the mother didn't want to know it."

John thinks the ewe rejected it because it had arrived at the wrong time of year: "Everything was wrong about it. The other lambs were pushing it out of the way. They didn't like it and were knocking it about a bit."

Once in the house, the terrier took over, sleeping in the basket with the orphan and caring for it just as its mother would have done.

Not part of the flock

John said he did try and encourage the ewe to look after her offspring and left them together overnight: "I was up and down all night, listening to the thing... she was still protesting quite seriously, so we took it out and the dog took over."

The lamb will probably never fit in with the rest of the flock and is destined to spend its life as a pet: "I think any farmer in the county who has brought up bottle fed lambs will know the problems... and we are going to experience those."

He is resigned to the fact that this is one lamb which will not be making him a profit: "Sometimes you've got to temper your commercial instincts with a bit of humanity."