NEW Quay RNLI volunteers had an unusual end to 2018 with two animal rescues on New Year’s Eve.

The crew were paged at 1.10pm following reports that a dog had fallen over a cliff between Tresaith and Aberporth.

The Audrey LJ inshore lifeboat launched with Simon Rigby as helm, along with crew members Ben Davies and Ellis Jones, and travelled south in search of the animal. Murray the dog had been walking on the coastal path with his owners when he plunged over 50 feet from the cliffs.

“We had a bumpy run down the coast, but luckily we were able to locate the dog quickly,” said Simon. “He was in a lot of pain and we had to extract him from a small cove.

“The poor dog was not happy and we had to be careful as we realised he had broken one of his front legs.

“We got him on board and handed him over to the Cardigan Coastguard rescue team on Aberporth beach where Murray was reunited with his owners.”

On their way back to New Quay the crew were tasked to a second incident by Milford Haven Coastguard, this time to a sheep that had fallen over a cliff near Llangrannog.

“We couldn’t believe that the sheep had fallen over 80 feet but had survived completely unscathed,” said Ben Davies.

“She must have landed in the water and swum to nearby rocks where we found her stranded.

“I never thought when I joined the lifeboat crew I would be lassooing a sheep and getting the poor thing into a boat.

“Luckily she was very calm on board but we had to tie her down for her safety as well as our own.”

The sheep had a trip in the lifeboat to Llangrannog where she was handed over to the New Quay Coastguard team.

See this week’s south editions, in shops and online now