Leave it alone, and it will come home

A LAMB chased on to a

Dunedin motorway by a rottweiler this week and missing for two days has found its way home, and its owners could not be happier.

Early on Wednesday, the 2weekold twin was chased by the dog through a fence from a Fairfield paddock and on to the Southern Motorway.

Police received several calls about a dog chasing a lamb on the state highway about 8.45am.

About the same time, emergency services were called to a threecar crash about 100m north of the Old Brighton Rd overbridge, but police could not confirm yesterday if the crash was caused by the animals.

Dunedin City Council animal services staff managed to wrangle the rottweiler, but the young lamb could not be located and its owners, Kath and Merv Morris, feared the worst.

However, about noon yesterday, Mrs Morris received a phone call from a neighbour who had spotted a skinny young lamb in shrubs below their property.

She called her husband, who arrived back at the lifestyle block they look after near their home in Main Rd, Fairfield, to find the lamb had wriggled its way back through the fence.

Two days on the lam had left it dying for a drink and it rushed to latch on to its mother.

‘‘It just about lifted her off the ground!’’ Mr Morris said.

It had lost some condition after two days without milk and was noticeably skinnier than its sibling, but looked to be otherwise in good health.

Mrs Morris said the mother was so protective she was unable to verify the lamb’s gender.

After fearing the lamb had been picked up for someone’s dinner or knocked over by a vehicle on the motorway, it was ‘‘awesome’’ to see it back with its mother, Mrs Morris said.

‘‘It really was pretty emotional stuff.

‘‘We searched and searched, then I had to go to work.

‘‘We actually didn’t think it would survive that long without being fed.

‘‘I can’t believe it was still there, tucked in underneath all the shrubs.’’

The rottweiler was understood to still be in the pound while animal services sought confirmation from the owner that their property had been secured.

PHOTOS: LINDA ROBERTSON No longer on the lam . . . A lamb that was chased on to the Southern Motorway, narrowly escaped death then returned home two days later, is nuzzled by its mother, together with its slightly fatter sibling.

Pleased as punch . . . Kath and Merv Morris, pictured on the Fairfield lifestyle block they look after, say they are overjoyed their lamb has returned.