[Vision2020] Caturday: Kitten Fits Right Into Mama Dog's Litter

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Daily Breeze (Torrance, California) at:

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_15080209

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Kitten fits right into mama dog's litter
By Donna Littlejohn Staff Writer

Talk about standing out in a crowd.

Dog rescue volunteer Shelly Gomez of Hawthorne got more than she bargained
for after she bailed a mama Chihuahua mix and her five newborn pups out of
the shelter for Noah's Bark.

So did mama dog, who wound up adopting a newborn kitten to nurse along
with her pups.

About a week after Gomez brought the mother dog - nicknamed "Jolie" for
the actress known for adopting children - Gomez received a call from the
same shelter in South Los Angeles asking her to pick up more newborn pups.

"While I was picking up these (other) day-old puppies (that went to
another foster home), there's a cat screaming and they said, `Do you want
it?'

"I really don't know anything about cats, but I knew what the alternative
was - they were going to euthanize it," she said. "So I took the kitten
home and when I walked in the door, the mom (dog) greeted me and was
jumping up, trying to grab the kitten out of my arms. ... She was so
excited."

Worried that the dog might hurt the kitten, Gomez slowly let the dog sniff
the feline that had been dropped at the shelter in a cardboard box.

"She just kept cleaning it and cleaning it," she said. "So I put the
kitten in the (dogs') box and the kitten started nursing. The rest is
history."

The tiny black-and-white, blue-eyed kitten now snoozes and suckles right
alongside her chubby puppy littermates as "mom" grooms and looks after
them all.

After they are vaccinated and receive spay/neuter surgeries, the dogs will
be ready to be put up for adoption in about six weeks, Gomez said.

Noah's Bark, based in Manhattan Beach, holds weekly mobile adoptions at
the Petco at the Crossroads shopping center at Lomita.

"She's an excellent mom," Gomez said of Jolie. "She takes such good care
of all of them. She's so nurturing."

But the mom is malnourished and needs some nurturing herself, Gomez said,
adding that the dog, ready to give birth, was brought in by a household
that had too many dogs that had not been spayed or neutered.

"She's an older mom, she's at least five years and maybe is eight or nine
years old," Gomez said.

The male kitten - who is now able to take some solid food as well as
continuing to nurse - will also be neutered and be passed on to one of
Gomez's friends who does kitten rescue to find a permanent home.

For now, the babies aren't doing much beyond the basics.

"They're still too young to play," Gomez said. "Every once in a while the
kitten will put her paw up on them, but all they do now is eat, poop and
sleep. In another week or two I'll have my hands full."

The kitten is fitting right in, she said.

"I don't think they know any difference," she said. "The kitten always
seems to be in the middle of the whole group, sleeping right in the middle
of the pile."

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Shelly Gomez of Noah's Bark, a South Bay dog rescue, is caring for a mom
dog and her five pups, along with a kitten she rescued from the same
shelter in Los Angeles.  The kitten seems right at home among the
Chihuahua mix puppies.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site577/2010/0513/20100513__kitty1_400.JPG

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Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown