Pooka the dog nurses abandoned kittens

Among the sweetest and most amazing pictures to me are those of dogs contentedly nursing creatures of another species.

When a litter of kittens in Washington was found abandoned, Linda Smith took them in and tried to care for them. Apparently she wasn’t performing up to the standards of Pooka, her 9-year-old Chihuahua.

Although Pooka hasn’t had a litter of puppies in four years, amazingly when the kittens started suckling, her milk came in.

Smith said,

She wanted them. I mean she just went crazy. I was trying to feed one of them with the milk and she had a hold of its back end, trying to pull it out of my hand. So that's when I knew I had to give them to her because she wasn't going to leave them alone.

The kittens continue to gain weight and are doing quite well. The story

 

When I was young we had a mother cat get killed by a car while she was out doing some recreational hunting, leaving two week old kittens orphaned.

Most of the work fell to my mother, but I remember it as an endless chore for the whole family trying to keep them bottle-fed, clean and odor free, having them wake us up for night feedings.

What is a difficult chore for a whole family of humans can be done so effortlessly by mother dogs like Pooka.

Comments

[threecollie]

Liz has hand raised kittens and it is indeed an awful chore. What a sweet little dog!

[Sam]

How awesome. We've raised a lot of litters of kittens, and it would have been nice to have a little dog like Pooka help.

Sam

[Linda]

I just adore how some animals are the mothers of all others...it doesn't matter what kind or type!

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

[Pamela]

One of the arguments made for spay and neuter is that dogs don't need to reproduce to be fulfilled. When I read stories like this, I start to wonder if that's true for all animals.

[Kirsten]

That is so wonderful! I just love stories like that.

[yellowdoggranny]

mimi and nate had 11 puppies..mimi was a mouser/rater and ate a poisoned mouse..didn't hurt her but it got into her milk ..so I had to milk her to get it out, and then bottle feed 11 puppies for over a week..Nate sat right by us the whole time but I fed them not stop all around the clock ..never will forget that..no sleep for a week..feck.