Cat gives birth to litter and then lends teat to baby squirrel [w/pix]

Metro [UK] ^ | 1 Nov 2013 | Natasha Culzac

[Slings and Arrows]

A tender cat that had just given birth gave her owners a bit of a shock when she was found to not only to be nursing her kittens, but a squirrel too.

According to her owner – a Redditor who posted the incredible pictures online – the adult cat had only given birth one day before she brought in the ‘shivering and breathing squirrel’ which had ‘no signs of a mother.’

‘We took him inside and called the vet. He said that if our cat had just given birth, there’s a very high chance she would care for the squirrel without a second thought. And that is exactly what she did,’ the Redditor explained.

The Good Samaritan cat didn’t stop there, however, as she went out two days later and ‘came back from under the porch with another one.’

Alongside her kittens she placed the second new creature with the first.

The litter reportedly all sleep together in their home on a farm, and the youngster is even sometimes carried around in the mouth of its new mum just like one of her own.

[Slings and Arrows]

Pix at source. Looks like Mama Cat had quite a few boyfriends.

[Slings and Arrows]

[Jet Jaguar]

That is a good story.

Thanks for the lift!

[Slings and Arrows]

My pleasure.

[The_Media_never_lie]

wow!

[Jet Jaguar]

[blackdog]

oxytocin, the hormone of mother instinct. I once gave a few injections of it to a mother ewe who was abandoning her second lamb. (new ewes sometimes can't count past the first) She mothered those two lambs and any bummer lambs clever enough to grab a meal. She tried to mother the dogs, cats, and even the occasional chicken. The high doses of oxytocin wore down in about two weeks.

I have a theory thay should put the stuff in urban water supplies so family bonds would last.

[Slings and Arrows]

One FReeper said that oxytocin could give Courtney Love motherly feelings towards a chainsaw, or words to that effect.

[Fred Nerks]

Bless her little mother-cat heart. I hope her own offspring all find loving homes.

[Sioux-san]

Beautiful - made my night/morning - can go to bed with a smile.

One of my kitties is the son of a feral mama- she had four solid black little boys plus the one I took in due to injury, another little boy kitty with mainly white coat plus tiger stripe pattern that looks like a map of the world. There had to be more than one babydaddy contributing to that litter.

[blackdog]

That there is one very funny, yet accurate quote.

[MacMattico]

Ha! The first picture looks like hey, I'm feeding this Squirrel could you at least not put it on Facebook or I'll lose all my street cred!

[fella]

Mommy kittahs is da bestest,

[Jet Jaguar]

LOL!

[Slings and Arrows]

Amen!

[Slings and Arrows]

It’s not uncommon in the kitty world. Maybe we should give them abstinence education.

[Therapsid]

Im tired of attributing human emotion to animals...The squirrel is a snack folks...a SNACK FOR LATER.

sssheesh

ok dogs are different...but all the other animals?

PHfffffft

[Sioux-san]

BabyMama is doing what comes naturally. We were able to catch all of her kids to have them neutered, but she was a .shrewd one and eluded capture. AFter three litters, she moved on to plant another “cell” elsewhere. Abstinence will not be in her vocabulary.

[hosepipe]

Soon that squirrly will have some bodacious toofies..
could knaw that nipple right off.

[andyk]

What a good little puddin’.