Mary had a little dram... (From The Northern Echo)

Mary had a little dram...

11:12am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News: Richmond & The Dales

A PUB has a new regular who is always first to the baa – an orphaned lamb.

Spotty Muldoon was taken in by Tracy Daly and Mike Peace, owners of the Tan Hill Inn, near Richmond, when they heard of his plight after visiting a farmer in Penrith, Cumbria.

The Leicester-Swale crossbreed was orphaned when his mother died while giving birth to him.

Ms Daly, 47, took him in at four days old, and he joins resident pet sheep Doris and Boris, ten ducks, a brood of hens, Jack Russell Sherbert, springer spaniel Lizzie and three cats.

Twelve-day-old Spotty Muldoon, named because of his spots on his ears and knees, has been enjoying food and drinks at the bar and spends his days being fawned over by regulars.

At night, he sleeps in a barn and will be reared in the pub and may eventually settle at Ms Daly’s farm in Somerset. She said: “The kids who come here love him, and people have been coming in then bringing their friends and family back to meet him.

“He has got a lovely character – he is very inquisitive.

“In the first few days, the vets said he had a 60 per cent chance of making it, but now we have taken him in and he is doing well.

“At the farm, they have all the other animals to look after, so he would not get as much time and attention as he does here.

“He likes to nibble on people’s elbows at the moment.”