A little French bulldog called Baby has become a mother to six wild pigs who faced death in a freezing forest after their mother was shot and killed by a hunter. Baby, eight, thought her breeding days were behind her when she suddenly was presented with the half-dozen boars at the Lehnitz animal sanctuary near Berlin. Baby lives at the refuge as a pet and in her time has been a surrogate mum to abandoned bunnies, kittens and a racoon.

The squealing piglets were brought into the sanctuary at the weekend and Baby knew what she had to do. Although Baby cannot feed the piglets — they are getting all the nutrition they need from a special formula given to them in bottles — she provides all the warmth and comfort that they need. This mostly consists of playing with them and becoming a bulldog-bed for her new litter to lie upon when they are sleepy. The sextuplets will stay with Baby at the sanctuary for three months before being released back into the wild.