This adorable little critter really is a true spring chicken as she takes her first tentative steps in the glorious sunshine. The newborn chick, who is just a few weeks old, has also struck up an unlikely friendship with a kitten who helps protect her from pesky vermin. Baby pavlovskaya hens are particularly susceptible to attack from rats and mice - but thanks to her new ginger moggy bodyguard this one has no worries about taking a stroll in the early spring sunshine. She even frolics with the month old cat called Mikeal in spring flowers and gives him a cheeky peck on the head before taking off to explore the rest of the garden garden. Sergey Dmitriev, from Barnaul, Russia, has devoted his life to hand rearing rare breeds of chickens in his garden. He said: "We want to help restore the ancient Pavlovskaya hens because they are a very rare breed here in Russia and this hen was one of the first born this year. "We have lots now and each year we incubate hundreds of them ourselves. "But sometimes they can get attacked by rats and mice who get into the coops and kill them. "We usually have to protect them like they are our own children - but recently our pet cat Mikeal has protected them for us. "He will follow them everywhere they go whenever we let them out to make sure they are safe. "Meeting cats is rare for chicks so it is surprising to see them together. "It was pretty unusual as the chicken was absolutely not afraid of our kitten. They spent much time together when they were small and then when they got bigger they stayed friends. "Mikeal is now her personal body guard." Pavlovskaya hens are an ancient breed, with the Queen even said to have owned eight of them. But they came close to extinction forcing Sergey to begin breeding them.