Some animal moms just aren’t programmed to nurture and keep their brand new babies alive. It’s heartbreaking to see, but sometimes a lactating mom can take on the abandoned babies and try to save their lives, like when a cat welcomes a strange litter and nature takes over, leading her to nurse the babies that aren’t even hers.
But once in a while, we learn of mindboggling stories of a momma critter nursing babies that not only aren’t her own, but aren’t even her species! Turns out that it’s not all that uncommon…
One time, a sow adopted two tiger kittens and allowed them to nurse! Snaggle Puss the cat accepted a baby bunny and allowed her to nurse.
Three squirrels had lost their momma in a nasty storm and when the homeowner found them, she encouraged them to latch on to her cat that had just given birth to a litter of kittens – and it worked!
Tilly, a two-year-old Boxer, allowed an orphaned fawn to nurse off of her and even tenderly licked the baby deer. In South Carolina, a very furry cat named Miss Kitty found herself in a similar predicament through no fault of her own.
Miss Kitty was adored by her owners and loved by her neighbors. But Miss Kitty gave birth to a litter of kittens that heartbreakingly passed away one by one.
Their deaths took a toll on the cat and left her quite distraught.
Her mourning was intensified, explained her owner Missy Grant, because their Cocker Spaniel named Smoochie also had given birth to a healthy litter of puppies. They quickly recognized that Miss Kitty actually was jealous.
But strangely enough, Smoochie had no interest whatsoever in being a mom. First Miss Kitty loses her entire litter and then Smoochie didn’t want to be a mom to her babies.
It just didn’t seem fair!
So when Missy spied Miss Kitty slinking across the backyard with one of Smoochie’s puppies in her mouth, she was taken aback. What on earth was the cat doing?
Neighbor Linda Blackwell helped Missy solve the mystery. Linda heard rustling and odd animal sounds coming from underneath her mobile home.
Missy laid in wait for Miss Kitty and watched her carry another puppy under Linda’s home. The feline wedged inside a tiny opening with the baby in tow.
Her owner peered inside the small hole and saw Miss Kitty comfortably nestled in the corner of a crawlspace, surrounded by puppies. Still in disbelief, Missy grabbed her husband Ryan to have him take a look at what she was seeing.
“When we came home one evening there were five puppies missing.”
Miss Kitty was cleaning the babies and allowed them to nurse off her!
“I guess Miss Kitty, after her kittens died, she felt the need when they were whining and all to take over.”
Missy and Ryan decided that if they could find stray, abandoned kittens who needed a momma to bond with Miss Kitty, maybe that would ease her pain.
A man who lived up the road had a couple of kittens he gave them, but instead of distracting Miss Kitty from the puppies, she simply welcomed them into her litter of pups.
Local veterinarian Dr. Andrew Holland couldn’t believe that Miss Kitty had replaced her lost litter with Cocker Spaniel puppies.
“We see cats adopting other kittens and we see dogs adopting other puppies, but very seldom do you see one species nursing off a different species.”
He reached out to the Grants and emphasized that the puppies really needed to be nursing off their actual mom, so he showed them how to help Smoochie relax and nurse the babies, which thankfully worked.
But the beautiful pups had already bonded with Missy Kitty. So while they nursed off Smoochie their momma, they still hung around Miss Kitty and looked up to her like she was their mom, too.
In the end, Smoochie and her babies bonded and Miss Kitty had two new baby kitties, too. She also fawned over those puppies, too.
Watch this crazy beautiful story in the video below. It’s crazy!
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Source: Honest to Paws, Little Things, Inspire More, Newsner, YouTube/ibequeen, Scribol
