One year-old puppy nurses kitten

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A "feel-good" story for a drizzly, cool fall day (at least here)

Story here.

A long-time animal foster said the recent behaviour of her dog and cat is something she had never witnessed.

Patricia Tschanen of Fraserwood, Man., recently observed her nearly one-year-old puppy Phoenix nursing a young kitten she had taken in.

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Phoenix came into Tschanen’s care last December with the rest of her siblings...[who died from distemper :(] With lots of therapy, Phoenix is now a healthy dog, who enjoys playing with the other dogs Tschanen has adopted.

Snickers was caught on camera following Tschanen’s other cat on her property, and Tschanen decided to rescue the cat.

“The kitten is maybe eight to 10 weeks old, extremely people shy, so I put her in a dog kennel in my office,” she said. “Whenever a dog walked by, she started rubbing on the kennel and purring, and was very attached to the dogs from the back.”

Tschanen let Snickers out to see the dogs, and she ended up getting close to Phoenix.

At first, I didn't think much; I just thought she's comforting herself with purring and suckling a bit on her,” she said.

Tschanen talked about the behaviour with her friend, who is a veterinarian tech, and asked if milk was coming out from Phoenix, as dogs that haven’t been spayed may sometimes lactate and show other signs of pregnancy.

Sure enough, milk was coming out.

Phoenix and Snickers have since become close friends and are almost inseparable around the house.
 
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Joy! Many years ago I had a big male cat, Bobby. I found a tiny kitten, just days old. He was in bad shape. I had to feed him baby food and formula. Bobby dry nursed that kitten! I was working 10hr shifts then, so my mom would come over twice a day to feed him. Bucky. made it and became a great cat. Bobby was a real Mensch.
 
That's cute, but I hope they are aware that cats and dogs are very different when it comes to diet. Friend was given a cat that had been raised on dog food. Its bones were not in good shape.
 
Never underestimate how disparate animals can form a bond. Many years ago when we lived rural a feral cat adopted us. We did not know she was pregnant. We also had a Dalmatian dog and they got along great. One day the cat disappeared.

Later the dog brought us up to a spare bedroom to introduce us to the cats new litter.

We lived on a lake at the time and the kittens would follow the dog into the shallows and swim with her as she stalked minnows.
 
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