A PAIR of goslings have found an unusual mother figure in terrier Missy.

Their owner Kevin Harding, 44, said: "Missy just follows them around and they follow her.

"She's like a mother with puppies."

Kevin, a builder, from near Alnwick in Northumberland, said the border lakeland cross bitch must have pulled off the side of the run where the goslings were kept and then carried them to their summer house.

He said the family returned home to find her with them on the sofa, adding it was a far cry from her normal pastime of killing rats and rabbits.

He said: "We did hatch some once before and she was interested in them.

"We thought she was going to kill them."

Missy and the week-and-a-half old goslings went down a treat with Kevin's wife Kim, 42, and daughters Megan, 14, Erin, 12, and six-year-old twins Mia and Cerys.

Kim said: "Missy is about a year old.

"A young bitch will often latch onto something - usually a toy or a pair of socks.

"Missy had a little bear stuffed toy and she thought it was her baby.

"But now she has latched onto the goslings. She has even had a phantom pregnancy and is lactating."