Before and after: The tale of Auckland's luckiest lamb that escaped death and got pampered

The lamb was found stuck and covered in mud. Photo / Supplied

Ewe wouldn't believe it!

All thanks to a pesty thistle in a paddock, a Henderson Valley lamb has escaped a slow and cruel death.

Spring is just around the corner and lambs and calves are popping up around the country, leaving farmers wary of their stock and sleep deprived.

Despite the constant care of farmers, not every little one makes it - this was no different on Sunday for Linley Nisbet.

Nisbet had been burying a dead lamb before noticing a stray thistle standing tall and prickly in the ground 20 metres away.

The lamb received a shower, rub down and hair-dry. Photo / Supplied

Heading over to dig it out she heard a faint call from a lamb - but there wasn't one to be seen.

Calling out she soon discovered a young lamb stuck in a sinkhole almost a metre underground and completely covered in mud.

He had fallen into the hole and couldn't wriggle himself free, not without the help of a human.

Nisbet grabbed the spade and dug out enough mud to enable her to reach down and pull the beleaguered creature from the ground.

The rescued lamb after his clean up. Photo / Supplied

Caked in mud, the lamb was taken back to the woolshed at the Lockington and Lyon farm and fed milk through a bottle - taking to it like a duck to water.

Nisbet then took the bemused critter back to her home in Mt Albert where it received a shower and rub down with a towel before finally being dried with a hairdryer.

Her husband Peter took photos before the lamb had the shower and afterwards, to highlight the difference in emotions.

In a few days time, the lamb will become part of a new family nearby the Nisbet's for six to eight weeks before returning to the farm and being gradually weaned.