Shelter Cat Nurses Abandoned Puppies
Four Chihuahua puppies were abandoned in a shoe box left on a car in West Valley City April 22, 2015. The woman who found them on her car immediately brought them to us at the Humane Society of Utah.
About an hour earlier, our shelter had received two cats from an owner who explained the one, Kit, had recently nursed her babies who were given away and the sister, Kat, was pregnant. Our receiving team noticed milk in the carrier and knew Kit was still lactating, so when they received the puppies, the manager thought to see if the cat would nurse them.
We didn't know when the mother dog died and how long these puppies had been without milk or how long they had been in the box on the car in the hot sun, so we did what we thought may be the best for the puppies to try and feed. They did begin to nurse from Kit and we left them alone with both Kit and her pregnant sister, Kat to provide warmth. Kit responded well and allowed them to feed but was obviously stressed from being recently relocated to our shelter.
About four hours later, Kat went into labor and had to be removed from Kit. The stress of being in a new environment and being separated from Kat made Kit nervous and the staff felt the puppies needed to be bottle fed to ensure they received enough food. The puppies were taken care of and went home that night with one of our best HSU foster volunteers. They are all still alive and feeding well, so we're very happy to see that.
Kat had her litter of kittens and is doing great!
We received a litter of kittens that were found in a field Thursday, April 23. The kittens were placed with Kit to see if she would nurse them as well and she immediately took to them. Kit was more calm by then and began cleaning the kittens and allowing them to feed. She basically became a wet nurse for our foster department.
Kit will be available for adoption as soon as she can be spayed. Kat and her kittens will also be available in the weeks to come. We believe Kit may have helped save the lives of the abandoned puppies and are grateful to her!
The puppies will continue to be raised until they can be adopted out. The HSU spays/neuters, vaccinates and microchips all dogs before adoption.
Of course we want to remind people that abandoning companion animals is an act of animal cruelty and these puppies should have been brought to a local animal control or shelter instead of left in a shoe box to starve.