Posted on 02/14/2007 4:15:23 PM PST by Huntress
MERIDEN, Conn. -- Who says cats and dogs don't get along? Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat who has willingly adopted a six-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother.
The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, nurses alongside a jumble of black and gray kittens recently born to Satin, who was surrendered to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Cat/dog harmony ping!
ping
How key-yooooooooooooot!
How cute. I love the look on the mother's face. "Why on Earth did I agree to this?"
Can you please add to the header.."Caption this"
Is it a coincidence that this story follows close on the heels of yesterday's report that adoptive (read same sex) parents are better than biological ones ? I would like to know the sex/sexuality of the people who own this cat.
I have a hard time believing the biological mother rejected her own young ones, I am not saying its impossible, but I am very very skeptical. The whole thing is likely a setup, either for publicity's sake..or for pushing the you-know-what agenda.
No offense but you're kidding, right? It's common knowledge that sometimes a mother dog (or cat for that matter) will reject her own babies for various reasons...I remember even as a child being warned not to get too close to a mama cat and her litter lest she reject them and let them die.
Fire on High is right... it does happen commonly enough that anyone who breeds animals needs to be prepared for it, be it dogs, cats, horses, or what-have-you.
Sometimes it's because there's something wrong with the baby, and the mama instinctively knows it -- usually one in a litter of pups or kittens that gets pushed aside and ignored, but it happens with singleton foals and calves as well.
Sometimes a maiden queen or bitch will reject the kittens or puppies out of sheer nerves.
That's why PetAg sells tank car loads of KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer).
What a beautiful cat!
My father had a dog that adopted a kitten, but this is the first I've heard of a cat adopting a puppy.
From the article, which might help you understand:
Charlie's mother was found by the side of the road in Meriden a couple of months ago. She gave birth to two puppies, but one was stillborn. As sometimes happens with a stillborn in the litter, the mother dog refused to accept Charlie.
Volunteers bottle-fed him every two hours, but the effort was both exhausting to humans and insufficient for the puppy, who needs to feed when he wants, said volunteer Chris Chorney.
Research indicated that a suitable substitute could be Satin, who had given birth to four kittens that have quickly warmed to Charlie.
"The kittens scrum up with him and the kittens treat him like one of their own," Chorney said. "There's a certain social benefit of small animals being with each other."
A friend of mine had a puppy and a kitten who were about the same age. I was constantly amazed on how well the played with each other, rolling in the dirt together, just having a ball of fun. They were always at it, it was fun to watch.
Only half. But given today's liberals, nothing is outside the realm of possibility.
I didn't have a cat mom adopt a dog but I had one who adopted a half grown cat who had been weened several weeks earlier. Mom had kittens and the half grown kitten slipped in and started nursing. It was a fun litter.
Kitty ping!
Great picture! A true Valentine's Day story.
Thanks for the ping HOTD. Amazing how small animals will do this. The one of the mother dog and baby squirrel was amazing.
Our Collie adopted an orphaned kitten to go with her litter of pups
Oh, that's so neat! You never told me that before. Did it bark when it grew up..........LOL!!
Did you keep the cat?
The kitten belonged to a neighbor
When it was weaned they raised it up
Strange stuff
Yes, it is strange and I always wonder if those animals behave differently being raised by another type of animal.
That pic has something for everyone - cat fanciers and dog enthusiasts alike!
Wonderful!
Thank you!
Ms.B
Sweet! I would like to see them all when he gets so much bigger than they are!
Awwwwww!
Rottweiler mix, actually.
Too cute!
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
: )
AWWWW, I wish I could adopt them all, but my orange & white fuzzy princess might be overwhelmed by all the company ;-) Hopefully now that this picture's been published, the calls will start coming in.
We had a dog and a cat that had a litter of puppies and kittens, respectively, on just about the same day, at opposite ends of the same garage. The dog and cat got along ok, but the dog had very, very strong maternal instincts.
So strong, that a week later we came home to horriffic yowling, and entered the garage to see the cat in a frenzied panic, because the dog was laying there nursing her two puppies, and all four kittens, which she had gone and stolen from the mama cat. The dog was casually, not viciously, batting the cat away when it tried to get in and get its kittens back.
We had to keep them separate after that, because the dog was like that: she would steal the kittens and nurse them.
Very strong maternal instincts in that dog.
Also, the only time that dog ever growled at a human being or almost bit anybody was on a specific set of occasions, and one other. Whenever the dog had a litter of puppies, on the day she had the litter, even us, her owners whom she adored, would get a teeth-bared growl if we approached her and her newborn puppies. We got the message and didn't hold it against the dog. The cat didn't like her newborns being approached either, but wasn't as dangerously aggressive about it. That only lasted a day or so. By the end of the second day, we could get in there and pet the puppies and the mama dog. But not on the delivery day. She would have attacked if we persisted. It was clear. Very, very maternal. Gotta respect that. Even my dad respected that, and he had no patience for animals at all (or pretended not to anyway). Lesson: don't mess with a dog when she's just had puppies. For a day or so, she's not your pet anymore, and she will bite you, and it's nature and you cannot train it out of them and shouldn't try.
The other time she growled at somebody and actually bit him was when a big boy came into our yard and started beating up a little girl (who was his sister, BTW). He wasn't playing. And my dog wasn't either. She started to bark and snarl at him and when he kept punching his sister, she went right up his frame and bit him, hard enough to draw blood. Only time that ever happened. Dog would let MY "friends", my size, beat ME up sometimes, but she really didn't like the big boy picking on that little girl. He ran home and told his ma, who came over in high dudgeon about our vicious dog, until she heard that the boy (he was probably 14) had been beating his sister (she was maybe 6) then she walloped him and said "Good dog" and left.
Good stories, and completely true.
I didn't see that story, but I'd like to. I'm no fan of adoptions by same-sex couples, but heterosexual married couples need to go through all sorts of psychological screening and interviews before being allowed to adopt, while biological parents need only functioning genitals - excuse my crudeness.
No, I'm not suggesting that government agents or anyone else go around screening people for fitness to raise their biological offspring. Nor am I saying that every adoptive family is going to be stable and loving. However, living in NYC, I see too many cases of inner-city children being raised by parents who beat them, abuse drugs, etc. In that one respect the adopted children may have a leg up.
That sort of sweet good nature was prevalent among her offspring...one of her sons, a HUGE black tom who they called Big Daddy, would try to groom later litters and snuggle up with them like he also was trying to nurse them...they all loved him. He was as gentle with newborn kittens as any mother cat.
We have one of her other sons, a big grey monster.
Awwwww!!!!!!!
Great story! :D
Happy she's helping out. How adorable!
My "dominant" (non-aggressive - they're not the same thing) German Shepherd immediately took over a tiny kitten (~3 wks) we "saved" from a weirdo brat little boy who stole her.
We didn't know where he got it at the time but we knew he shouldn't have it - and he was abusive (my cousin: "Ever notice every time you come up here they have different animals?"), even right there in front of us on a very cold day. In the cold the baby was crying like crazy.
Anyway, Shana never had puppies (although she was never "cut" until she was 10), but immediately upon my aunt dropping the kitten in our house - "stolen" from the boy - Shana was totally interested. Took her and licked her and "nursed" her, letting Scarlett lie on her tummy trying vainly to get out milk! We just fed Scarlett with a bottle, but she loved having a furry "mommy" to cuddle into.
If this is a mix, I'm wondering what he will look like mature. Be interesting to see how the Rott comes through. That color totally throws me off!
I'd bet it's a Rottie-Pit Mix; they're getting very popular especially in CT where I live and instead of getting a killing machine by breeding the two-you get a really big dopey, drooling dog that looks really mean.
We have a Husky mix dog, a Rat terrier and the big dope. And it's the terrier you have to look out for especially if there is food within a five mile radius. Buddy, the Rottie mix, is so lovey dovey he even helps his girlfriend take a bath-and she's a cat!
I, for one, do not support inter-species adoptions.
Chase runs rings around Ursa, literally, and knows she can get her way with one well-placed kiss on the nose.
Terriers are the only dogs that actually scare me. They're tough hombres.
It's VERY common for mother animals (and mother humans, for that matter, though that usually involves drugs/alcohol) to refuse to care for their babies. First-time mothers are especially prone to this.
And that study yesterday said that adoptive parents as a whole devote more time and attention to their children than biological parents. It didn't give any statistics on gay adoptive parents, and most children of gay parents are the biological offspring of one of the parents and have not been legally adopted by the other, due to legal barriers. Nor did it say that adoptive parents were "better". Many people adopt children with shaky backgrounds (think Eastern European orphanages) or health problems who may simply require more time and attention. And all adoptive parents became parents on purpose, unlike biological parents which is a group that includes a lot of "accidents" (not to mention a lot of "slept with my crack/meth dealer"). A comparison of adoptive parents to on-purpose biological parents might well find that they devoted about the same amount of time and attention to their children.
it's funny how in our hubris we believe that we are the only species capable of nurturance.
A monster of a tom cat came to us in the middle of a cold snap some thirty years ago: his paws were frost bitten and bleeding and, after warming him up and feeding him, i took him to the vet where i had him altered and medicated. when he had recuperated and wanted to go out, i attached a note to the collar i had given him, explaining what i had done. his previous "owners" decided that they no longer wanted him, now that he was no longer a "super stud." Kitty came back to me, but this time he no longer wanted to go "out on the town."
That summer, the neighborhood kids brought me a fledgling sparrow, which i hand-fed until it tatted. To prepare it for release, i screened it in the bathroom to allow it to fly safely, away from the kitties. One day, as i entered the bathroom to feed the little bird, Gomez--by then the the faithful family retainer--darted in, snatched up the little bird, and ran off with it in his mouth. In a panic, I followed, calling my spouse for assistance. We chased them to a corner of a basement where I expected to find only the remains of feet and feathers; instead, we came upon this 20-pound cat dutifully washing the bird as he gently restrainted it with one paw.
We later adopted 2 quasi-feral littermate kittens that were less-than-fond of people but loved Gomez. They would pile on him, attempting to nurse from his private parts, and kneading incessantly. He washed them, chastised them, and brought them to understand that people--at least these people--were ok. They grew big and strong as he faded into old and frail, but even as he declined he nurtured his "babies"--a scarecrow at 10 pounds, he tried to comfort the 25-pound behemoth that still tried to suckle at his breast.
There was sadness and confusion when he passed--and grief. Animals know: they love and nurture and celebrate and mourn. It's up to us humans to pay attention, because we mostly circumscribe their world.
Aww! How precious. I certainly hope Satin and her babies all get a good home.
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