Motherhood is quite a big deal, especially when you’re learning that you’re going to be a new mom for the first time.
As humans, we have lots of info to help us understand what to expect when we’re pregnant, and more often than not, a pregnancy is planned. But with animals, we often wonder how it feels to discover that they’re pregnant. Animals don’t plan to have babies in the same way that humans do- it just kind of ends up happening.
So how do animals react in such a chill way when their bodies start changing? Do they know that they’re pregnant, or is it a surprise until the babies come out? We have so many questions. But for one cat in Greenland, after vets discovered that she was pregnant through an ultrasound, the soon-to-be mom was definitely aware that something was going on. Judging by some hilarious pictures that were taken during the scan, this mama cat is feeling all the emotions that come with pregnancy news.
In mid-April, a young tabby cat was discovered in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, where she was thought to be a stray. Greenland’s winters are bitterly cold, so the tabby was taken to a local shelter named Dyrenes Venner.
“Stray and lost cats have a really tough time during the winters up here,” Inunnguaq Christiansen, a board member at Dyrenes Venner, told The Dodo. “With freezing temperatures and frequent storms, they often have to seek shelter in the basements of older buildings.”
Despite being accustomed to living outside, the cat, who volunteers named Ulla, settled into shelter life brilliantly.
She was a happy and friendly little thing, and she enjoyed being around the volunteers, as well as all of the different animals that were living at the shelter.
“She’s very lovely and caring,” Inunnguaq said. “I brought my own dog, Yaris, to the shelter one time and Ulla immediately jumped on the cage.”
With Ulla’s kind and happy nature, staff presumed that her time at the shelter would be a breeze. But there was just one thing that was a little bit unusual about the cat. As the weeks passed, staff noticed that Ulla had began to gain lots of weight around her tummy area. They took a closer inspection and were surprised at what they found.
“One of the volunteers came with the comment that Ulla was getting pretty big,” Inunnguaq said. “Upon closer inspection, it was only around the belly area, and her nipples were getting pretty stiff.”
Without further ado, Ulla was taken to the vets for a scan – and the volunteers’ suspicions were confirmed. She was pregnant! But how was Ulla going to take the news?
Tone Frank, a board member at the shelter, had accompanied Ulla to the vets, and after seeing her hilarious reaction, he quickly took out his phone to snap a few pictures. In the comical snaps, Ulla can be seen first staring at the picture on the ultrasound, before staring back at the camera with wide, startled eyes.
Tone found the pictures so funny that he posted them onto Reddit, and within no time Ulla had gone viral!
“The pictures were so funny I decided to post them on /r/aww during my lunch break to see if a couple of people would share my amusement,” Inunnguaq said. “A few hours later and the post was exploding with 90,000 upvotes and over 900 comments. I spent the entire evening trying to reply to people … We got some really sweet PMs [private messages] from people thanking us for our efforts; it really lifted the mood for the volunteers at the shelter.”
Thanks to Ulla’s picture going viral, the mom-to-be has now been able to find a home, where she’s resting up until her kittens make their arrival.
“She’s been living at a foster family since Thursday on a trial period, and they really want to keep her and all of her kittens,” Christiansen reported. “With any luck, it’s going to work out for them.”
Good luck, Ulla, we think you’ll make a great mom! We can’t wait to see the pictures of the kittens.
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