Animal News
Rejected by her mother and abandoned in a field, Lily the lamb has been
adopted by a family Labrador in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Lily and
Shekel the Labrador have formed an unlikely close bond since they met,
sharing breakfast, bed and bottles. Suzanne McMurtrie found the newborn
lamb on her sister's lifestyle block in Pohangina on Friday. "They are lambing at the moment but weren't home and we found a lamb stuck behind a fence," she said. "I picked her up and dropped her in the middle of the sheep but none seemed to claim her. A few hours later she was still on her own so we pulled out the mother and her twin and tried to get the separated lamb to feed." Mrs McMurtrie said the ewe refused to accept Lily, but a special friend was waiting in the wings.
She's not sure if Shekel is being maternal. "When we feed the lamb Shekel always washes her face, the thing mothers do for their babies," she said. "I don't think she thinks of Lily as her baby but she is very fond of her. And I don't think the lamb thinks she's a lamb. We're trying to teach her to eat grass - we figure if there is milk on it she might give it a nibble." Lily will go to the Highland Home christian Camp once she is weaned.
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