Nappy-wearing Wellingborough goat back with mum

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A sickly baby goat that started behaving like a dog while being nursed back to health in nappies has finally been returned to its mother.

Lily the kid collapsed in a critical condition shortly after birth at her owner's Wellingborough home in Northamptonshire in January.

Rebecca Mineards had to put Lily in nappies while caring for her indoors.

Lily is now "doing everything goat and doing it well," she said. "If she sees the dogs now she headbutts them."

The baby goat was just three weeks old when she was rushed to the vet.

Mrs Mineards was told Lily was unlikely to survive, but after steroid treatment she decided to try and nurse the frail animal back to health.

Confused dogs

For several weeks she looked after Lily in the living room, changing the kid's nappies regularly "as you can't house-train a goat".

After physiotherapy Lily began to perk up and began to play with the family's dogs, stealing their toys and chasing their balls.

"She really did seem to think she was a dog, but the aim was only ever to get Lily back with her mother," Mrs Mineards said.

Two months after she collapsed near death, Lily has been slowly reintroduced to her mother, Blossom, and twin brother Dexter.

"I'm still having to feed her as mum won't do that, but she is doing everything a goat should do, jumping around and playing with the herd."

Lily occasionally finds her way back into the house but her former canine playmates are now more wary.

"She's taken to headbutting them and they're not at all sure what to make of her now," Mrs Mineards said.