Today was one of those days when you just don’t want to get up – you hope that the alarm you can hear going off is just a dream and you still have 8 hours of sleep left… wrong! But I can always rely on the Metro to get me smiling again, this morning it was the story of the black belt lamb. Now i might be slightly biased as I have sheep but isn’t he just the cutest?

He may be just a few days old, but this unusually marked lamb is clearly one to be reckoned with.

Named Miyagi after fictional martial arts expert Mr  Miyagi from the Karate Kid films, he was born five days ago with a thick belt of black wool around his middle.

Farmer William Herbert said:

‘I’ve been farming for over 50 years but I’ve never seen anything like this before. Some lambs have a spot of discoloured wool, but it’s very unusual to see a  full thick stripe. It goes all the way around. It looks like I’ve gone out to him with a paint brush.

‘He’s one of a set of triplets but he won’t be treated any differently to his  brother and sister. They don’t have any markings on them – he’s the odd one out.’

Mr Herbert, who also keeps cows at Woodwell House Farm, Durham, said it’s not certain Miyagi will keep his black belt. He said:

‘Some sheep with slight discolouration lose it when they get older. This little one’s stripe feels more like hair than wool though.  We won’t know whether he’ll keep it until he starts to grow.’

Well I sure hope he does – Ive never had an excuse to travel north to Durham, but now I have a good excuse as any. Road trip anyone?