THIS kind-hearted Dalmatian has clearly got more than enough love to go round and made herself surrogate mother to three lonely lambs.
Dalmatian Willow has become a surrogate mother to three lambs
One-year-old Willow started nurturing the Flintstones-named trio Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and Barney after their mothers rejected them.
Farmer Mandy Ellison watched in despair as the lambs were all shunned by their mothers because they were the weakest of their new offspring.
But the loving dog also finds time to protectively follow Mandy’s youngest son Mark, six, who has cystic fibrosis, around the farm.
Mrs Ellison, 42, said: “Some of the ewes have had triplets this year. When there’s that many, the ewes sometimes can’t cope so they reject them.
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Taking pity on the little newborn, Mrs Ellison named her Pebbles and took her inside the family home where she lives with her husband, 38-year-old James, eight-year-old Coen, Mark and Willow.
She added: “We brought Pebbles in the house where we have a log burner and put her in the dog bed in front of the open fire and the Dalmatian got in and started licking her. I’ve never heard of it before – it was just an accident in all honesty.
“We just put the lamb in the dog bed to keep warm.”
When another two lambs were also rejected by their mothers, Mandy was even more amazed to see Willow’s caring nature was extended to them too.
The amzing bond was made when the sickly lamb was place in the dog’s basket to keep warm
Mrs Ellison, of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, added: “She’s never had puppies before in her life, but now she’s mothering these lambs like it’s going out of fashion. I don’t know that any other dog would do that.
“Pebbles, the one that was near death, follows her around like she’s her mother.
Farmer Mandy Ellison says she has never heard of it happening before
“She is a caring dog though I suppose, for a one-year-old she has a very maternal instinct.
“My youngest son has cystic fibrosis and she follows him about too, looking after him. She’s as daft as a brush otherwise.”
