Sweetest mother cat adopts orphaned kitten — then another and another

"It’s like she wants to adopt any child there is. She has such a mother’s heart.” No Images? [Click here]( May 14, 2018 Good morning! Today we have the best mama cat, an adventurous dog who strayed a little too far from home and two bobcat kittens who needed a second chance at life. 1. Sweetest Mother Cat Adopts Orphaned Kitten — Then Another and Another Photo Credit: Kobe Wegge When a mom loves, she loves unconditionally. This rings especially true for Aspen, a young mother cat who was found on the streets of Texas last week with her two newborn kittens. She didn’t know it at the time, but her tiny family was about get much larger — and even more adorable. Koby Wegge, founder of Sycamore Tree Ranch farm sanctuary, had a litter of four rescue kittens who weren’t being nursed by their biological mom, so she contacted Parker Paws, where Aspen and her babies were staying, with a special request: She was looking to foster a mother cat who could raise the babies as her own. “Their mom didn’t really want anything to do with them,” Wegge told The Dodo. “We jumped in and started bottle-feeding them every two hours around the clock, and that’s when we thought of the idea of finding them a foster mom. We could give her a comfortable space to raise her own babies, and give our rescue kittens the chance to have a mom.” The shelter workers instantly knew Aspen would be a great match. They had already introduced her to another orphaned kitten someone had dropped at the shelter, and they bonded right away. “When she arrived to us [from the shelter], she had three kittens already — two of her own, and the little orphan,” Wegge said. “We introduced her to our four babies, who were just a few days old, and she loved them immediately.” Soon after, Wegge got a call from Aspen’s rescuers at the shelter about yet another orphaned kitten, who had been found crawling around someone’s lawn all alone. Just like with the other orphans, Aspen was instantly smitten. “Of course we couldn’t leave that little baby at the shelter either,” Wegge said. “So now, she has eight babies from four different litters. She is the best mama to them and is so proud of her kittens.” Photo Credit: Kobe Wegge Since all the kittens are only about a week old, Aspen spends most of her days snuggling and nursing them. She loves them so much — but is glad to let Wegge and her young daughter help out, too. They help her keep up with nursing by bottle-feeding the kittens a few times each day. “My daughter loves all the animals on the farm, but when she discovered the kittens she was so excited,” Wegge said. “She’ll sit with them and Mama cat will walk right over and sit in her lap. It’s like she wants to adopt any child there is. She has such a mother’s heart.” Aspen and her babies will be together for at least the next seven weeks until the kittens are ready to be weaned. Then they will be available for adoption through Parker Paws — but Wegge is already considering keeping Aspen and some of the babies. There are three boys and five girls. “We’re really getting attached to her,” Wegge said. “She’s such a sweet cat, and the best mom.” 2. Wandering Dog Learns Lesson After Getting Stuck In The Grossest Place Photo Credit: Pueblo West Fire Department Buddy, a 7-year-old coonhound, loves to play escape artist when his parents aren’t watching — and his little sister, Gidget, a 2-year-old English mastiff, is all too happy to join in on the fun. The dogs’ parents have come to expect these regular escapades, so when Buddy surreptitiously let himself out of the back door Sunday night — with Gidget in tow — the pups’ owner, Mandi Smith, didn’t think much of it. “Usually they come back, but they didn’t come back that night,” Smith told The Dodo. “The next morning, we see Buddy, and he’s out running amok and he’s wet, so we decided to take a trip down to the reservoir … and we called for [Gidget], but we couldn’t find her anywhere.” Gidget and Buddy’s nighttime romp had, in fact, taken them in the opposite direction of the reservoir: to a local wastewater treatment facility 6 miles from their home in Pueblo West, Colorado, where they got into some serious trouble. On Monday morning, Tony Campbell, one of the plant workers, was starting his shift when he heard exhausted barks coming from one of the sewage treatment ponds. Those tired yelps belonged to Gidget, who was struggling to keep her head above the muck after being stuck for over an hour. “I’m pretty sure the hound dog decided to jump in and take a swim and Gidget followed suit,” Smith said. “She’s like an 8-year-old kid, she’s got that mentality — happy-go-lucky, ‘I’m doing what you’re doing,’ ‘You’re jumping, I’m jumping.’” Campbell spotted a worried Buddy pacing nearby, but when he approached Gidget, the other dog fled. Campbell knew that due to the aeration process, anything that got out into the wastewater pond would sink, so he called the fire department, according to Smith. “When we got there, we found out she was in an aeration pond of wastewater fluids that runs about 17 feet deep and holds about 1.5 million gallons,” Brad Davidson, Pueblo West Fire division chief, told The Dodo. “There was a little walkout area where plant facility staff can go and test the water, and this dog was stranded underneath this concrete wall, kind of perched up on the wall, but stuck.” Extricating the pup would be an unpleasant operation. “My understanding is this pond is either step one or step two of the raw sewage coming in,” Davidson said. After suiting up in protective gear, the fire crew was able to secure a catch pole around Gidget and lower a ladder down for her. “We kind of coached and urged the dog to come over, and she came up the ladder kind of on her own,” Davidson said. “We had to help her get within arm’s reach, and then the guys grabbed her to get her up out of the wastewater.” Photo credit: Pueblo West Fire Department The fire crew then rinsed off Gidget with a fire hose while waiting for rescue workers from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region to arrive on the scene. “She was really exhausted — she just wanted to sit down and do nothing, basically,” Davidson added. “She stunk pretty bad, poor thing.” After two decontamination baths and an examination by veterinary staff, Gidget didn’t smell much better, but she was beyond happy to see Smith’s 16-year-old son, Henry, who came to take her home. And Henry was delighted to see her, too. Safely back with her family, Gidget knows she’s one lucky dog. “She’s doing absolutely great,” Smith said. “She’s super ecstatic to be home and constantly whining in glee.” But days later, she can’t help but remind her family of where she’s been whenever she walks into the room. “She’s still got some odor and I think it’s going to be there for a while,” Smith said. “She’s had numerous baths, but she sat in it for such a duration, that it’s going to be few more weeks yet before it goes away.” Buddy didn’t get off scot-free, either. He, too, has a distinctive odor after his romp in the sewage. Photo Credit: Madi Smith The story of the two dogs’ misadventure has even gone viral, and their owner thinks it’s hilarious. “What a poopy day,” Smith added. “Literally.” Hopefully next time Buddy will choose a better-smelling spot for an adventure. 3. Family Steals Wild Bobcat Kittens To Keep Them As Pets Photo Credit: Facebook/San Antonio Animal Care Services Two scared baby bobcats are now without their mother — thanks to a San Antonio, Texas, family who took the animals home to be pets after supposedly finding them in a shed on their property. Originally, a member of the family contacted San Antonio Animal Care Services over the weekend claiming she found the animals in an alleyway and mistook them for stray kittens. The story then changed to finding them in the shed, and mistaking them for Bengal cats. The bobcats were with the family for several days before being surrendered to animal control, during which three people in the family were bitten and scratched by the cats when they tried to feed them. The bobcats, a boy and a girl, are now in the care of Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, which unfortunately sees cases just like this one far too often. Although calling animal control was the right thing to do in the end, lying about when and where the kittens were found highly reduces the chance of reuniting the babies with their mom again. “Over the years, we’ve seen this tragedy unfold many times,” Lynn Cuny, founder and president of the rescue, told The Dodo. “They [the kittens] must be very confused right now — and the complexity of the situation is one that most fail to realize. Their future has now been altered profoundly now that they’re separated from their mom.” No one knows for sure where the kittens' mother is — or whether the babies were ever inside a shed at all. "All we know is what these people tell us," Cuny said. "Wild mother bobcats are very protective of their young, and they stay very close to their babies unless they are out hunting. We have to believe that, at some point, they were stolen. The only luck these cats have are that they were not declawed or defanged." Since bobcat kittens often stay at their mother’s side for the first 10 to 13 months of life, Cuny and her team now have the unique challenge of balancing the cubs' independence as wild animals with their need for regular feedings and care as youngsters. “We simply cannot replicate that relationship that they should be having with their mother,” Cuny said. “They learn mostly everything from their moms at this age, especially the notion to stay away from humans. The good thing is, since their eyes are already open, hand-rearing is less likely to habituate them to us. But it’s still a true battle — you need to have as little interaction as possible.” Photo Credit: Facebook/San Antonio Animal Care Services Since the kittens are only around 3 weeks old, they will remain in the care of the rescue indefinitely. Once they’re older and the team can assess their instinctual skills, then they will most likely be released back to a rural area. Luckily, the kittens weren’t suffering from any health problems, and still have each other to lean on for comfort. And although their little lives have been changed forever, they are in the best possible hands, and are with people who can give them a chance at life in the wild. “Even if your heart is in the right place and you see a cute animal who you think needs help, always call the professionals,” Cuny said. “We saved 10,000 lives last year of animals who never wanted to be bothered by a human being. And there are thousands of other precious lives out there who need to stay wild, just like these two.” Whale Saves Scientist’s Life [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( The Dodo 100 Crosby St., 201 New York, NY 10012 [Forward]( [Unsubscribe](