Facebook unites stolen lambs with family

London, Dec 26: Facebook was yet again pivotal in reuniting two little ones with their family - in this case two stolen lambs who were reunited with their mother and delivered to a little girl in time for Christmas in New Zealand.

Anna Smith and her husband from Christchurch saw two little black lambs listed on "Trade Me" last week and decided to add them to their family.

But on Christmas Day, Smith received a text message from the woman selling the lambs telling her they had been stolen.

"I felt a bit sick to be honest and kept thinking about their poor mother wondering where her lambs were," Smith was quoted as saying.

Smith said she spent most of Christmas Day on Facebook posting photos of the lambs, listing them as stolen on different sites and urging people to share her post far and wide.

At 8:30 p.m. Smith received a phone call from a woman claiming her sons had picked the lambs up from Summit Road on Christmas Eve. The woman had seen Smith's post on Facebook.

The woman who was selling the lambs picked the lambs up from a house in Aranui on Christmas night and was pleased to find them "healthy and cared for".

The lambs' mother, who had been "noticeably distressed" since their disappearance, was now on loan to the Smith family until the three-week-old lambs are weaned.

Smith said the lambs were "incredibly cute and tame" and Eliza had wasted no time bonding with them. Eliza is the couple's two-year-old daughter.

"I'm just very happy that we found them," she was quoted as saying.

IANS