Shekel the Labrador adopts lamb named Lily

In New Zealand, a family Labrador named Shekel has adopted a lonely lamb named Lily.

A little lamb was abandoned by her mother in a field in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Local resident Suzanne McMurtrie spotted the lamb stuck behind a fence and tried to reunite the lamb with the other sheep in the field. None would accept her.

After McMurtie saw that the lamb's mother refused to feed the baby, she took the lamb home with her where the family pet, a golden Labrador named Shekel, immediately adopted the lamb.

"The mother would just bowl her over so I said we would have her for a few weeks until she was weaned," she told Fairfax NZ News. "The first day we brought the lamb home Shekel went boof on her head wanting to play. The lamb just rolled over, she's a tough wee thing."

Shekel and the lamb, now named Lily, eat, sleep and play together. Shekel even cleans Lily after breakfast.

"When we feed the lamb Shekel always washes her face, the thing mothers do for their babies," McMurtie 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," she added.

Watch the adorable pair hang out together here.

Once Lily is weaned, she'll go to her new home at Highland Home Christian Camp.

Two years ago, we shared the story of a sheep named Jack, who, thanks to a friendship with a springer spaniel, thought he was a dog.

"He makes this strange half baa, half woof noise which everyone finds hilarious," said owner Alison Sinstadt.

Watch Jack bark here.