AN eight-year-old North-East girl, who touched the nation with her secret diary describing the loss of her pet cow during the foot-and-mouth cull, has found a new animal friend.

Jessica Cleminson's faith in God and mankind was rocked when Ministry of Agriculture officials ordered in April that 14-year-old Caroline must die.

But the arrival of seven-week-old Molly, a bouncing yellow labrador, has brought a smile back to little Jessica's face.

Her mother, Susan, said: "She just couldn't understand, if God loves everything so much why did it happen?

"You cannot make an eight-year-old understand. The arrival of Molly has put a smile back on her face - she is more the girl we are used to.

"It has been a Godsend because she was really an unhappy little girl. It has been something nice for her at the end of the year."

The diary, found under Jessica's bed at her home in New Hummerbeck Farm, West Auckland, County Durham, was perhaps the most poignant image to come out of the crisis which ravaged the farming community.

On the day the cattle were condemned, she wrote her diary entry in black and circled two smudges with an arrow indicating "my tears".

Her father, Stephen, said at the time: "We didn't know about this diary until my wife found it under Jessica's bed. We were heartbroken when we read it.

"I have never known a cow like it. She was as friendly as a dog. The children would ride on its back. She would stand for ages with her head in your arms."

He added: "The cow was almost human, she used to cry at times. Caroline cried when they came to put her down. She was within 24 hours of calving which made it all the worse."

New Hummerbeck Farm is still eerily silent as Ministry officials have yet to give permission for Mr Cleminson to re-stock.

Regulations mean it will be four months before Jessica can have a new calf to take the place of Caroline.