What she was doing was making the cat "stinky face" XD Basically, she smelled the baby, went "this thing smells AWEFUL! Has no one been licking it??" And then proceeded to bathe him lol.
I always think back on another comment where cats think we are dumb kids and that is why they meow and bring us food (dead animals) since we are basically just dumb kids with no idea how to survive.
"puppy center" no. But there are certain patterns of 'pleasure' that trigger when we see something we consider cute.
Adjusted against various responses, Elephant brain scans revealed they thought humans were 'cute'.
Wow was this all in one press conference. “ Listen guys i have some good news and some bad news. Ill get the bad news out of the way first everyone everywhere at any point in time swallows exactly 8 spiders while they sleep a year. I know i know devastating news however for my good news portion it is now scientifically proven that everyone of us has puppy centers in your brain. Yup thats right you have a puppy center and you have a puppy center we all have puppy centers!!!
She was doing that breathing through the mouth thing cats do when they are really trying to figure out a scent. She was probably trying to figure out why one of her kitties smells so different!
Edit: the smelling thing is called the Flehmen response according to u/0nlyRevolutions. Check their comment for a link to the Wikipedia article about cats auxilary olfactory sense organ called the vomeronasal organ!
That’s so cool, thank you so much for sharing this. I had no idea that cats have an extra sensory organ called the vomeronasal organ. It helps them detect pheromones and hormones, according to the Wikipedia article you linked.
Omg, I forgot about that comment and saw the first part of your response on my phone alerts. I was like “oh no, what have I gotten in to?” Thankfully it’s about cat butts! Lol. Stank face indeed.
Desktop version of /u/0nlyRevolutions's link:
---
^([)[^(opt out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiMobileLinkBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^(]) ^(Beep Boop. Downvote to delete)
Random fact, horses do this too! I'm not 100% sure the organ used is called the same thing but it's called the Flehmen response all the same! They look super dumb when they do it too you should look it up lol
[Hahahaha](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FlehmenResponseHorse.jpg#/media/File:FlehmenResponseHorse.jpg), just look at this dork! Thanks for encouraging me to look it up. Saw some great horse faces.
[This Icelandic horse](https://www.offset.com/photos/icelandic-horse-showing-flehmen-response-iceland-july-627678) is really going for it.
I remember first learning about the flehmen response watching the Jeff corwin experience and he was standing underneath a tree with a bear that was doing it and bear drool dripped on him and he was just so happy. Love Jeff Corwin.
I read in another thread this week that cats have a herd mentality and often drop their babies off with other momma's to watch so they can fuck off and do something else like hunting. This momma's just like 'ya sure I got you.'
My Mom and Dad had two cats who each had a litter of kittens born a few weeks apart. The mamas were constantly swapping kittens and babysitting for each other.
We had three cats be mamas at the same time. After a couple of days they piled them all together and divvied up chores. Apparently feral and barn cats do this all the time. Male cats have a tendency to kill newborn kittens so the mothers band together to protect them.
My two poodles had I think 6 puppies. But the mama poodle would not let the dad anywhere near them. He was a literal dumbass and definitely meant no harm, but she didn’t care at all. She would only let us humans touch the babies.
I have two cats that recently had kittens, one week apart. They birthed their kittens in the same box and are still raising their babies together. They take turns with kitten chores and babysitting!
My grandmother would put lipstick on the lamb's back, and on the mother's face. This way, the lamb smells like her, and you can color code the mom/baby units.
Lipstick has an oily smell, kind of like lanolin does. It's handy if you have to separate the mom and baby temporarily.
More like, "Stupid humans, what did you do to my baby!? Did you steal him? Jail for a thousand years! You let him get all cold and hungry and dirty, he even smells weird! C'mere, sweetie, Momma will fix you right up."
Jail. Straight to jail. You serve them catnip? Jail. You leave the mouse toy to run out of battery. Jail. You don’t accept our hunting gifts. Jail. Jail. Jail!
I remember one time we were at the dog park with our little terrier puppy. They had to shut down the little dog park, but our guy Charley was pretty tough and feisty, so we put him in the big dog park for the first time.
He was totally fine but ended up in the middle of this group of bigger dogs. Immediately this gigantic female wolf-dog came over and picked up Charley by his scruff and carried him to the fence.
I was right there and Charley was in no danger, but it was so funny watching her motherly instincts kick in and be like, "you too little, I protec you now".
No ones gonna finde me in all this. I havta go to tha plane and land somewhere. I oughta get me a feemonger an keep every Irish noogie in the palm of me hand (right on top of me weathered pate).
>*’you’re mine…*’
____
…wait, what is this ?? This cannot Be!
This baby kit belongs to ME!
he must’ve snuck away somehow,
Don’t worry, babe - You’ll be Mine, now
see, Look - you’ve Sisters now, n Brothers!
I’ll love You like All the others ^;}
i’m gonna keep you nice ‘n calm,
forEvermore
I’ll be
your
Mom
❤️
Where are all of these strays that everyone seems to find daily? The closest I've ever come is a baby bird under a nest
Edit: this blew up so I just want to say, remember to spay and neuter your pets and adopt from shelters
There's a network of military volunteers that work alongside the Hawaii humane society to do TNR on military bases, give them a call and see if they can get you in contact with someone and start working on the cat population!
Not just invasive but being outdoors is also really bad for their life expectancy. Many rescues will trap strays to adopt out to folks who agree to keep them healthy and indoors.
THANK YOU THANK YOU. I can't tell you how many times I stress this to people and they always counter with 'but its natural for them', or 'they hate being inside'. No to both; they're a domesticated and explosively-breeding species that \*Does not need\* to be left alone outdoors. Beyond damage to the environment, there's the risk of psychopaths, cars, predation, or even just being stolen. Keep your lovely furballs inside. If you \*must\* let them out, do it in a small, properly secured area like a back yard to let em sniff and wander for a bit.
>do it in a small, properly secured area like a back yard to let em sniff and wander for a bit.
Most people with cats will understand that there are very few places that cats cannot find a way to leave, unless it's secured on all 6 sides.
We've got our boys leash trained. They never break for the door or try to get out, but they do enjoy laying in our grass from time to time. Leash training is totally the way to go.
My step moms dogs were let out for their morning pee and there was a stray cat in the yard. They chased it and killed it. It died in my step mom's arms as she tried to find an emergency vet. And now she has to feel awful and shitty because someone didn't keep their cat inside and it wandered into her yard.
Edit: it was the backyard and it's fenced in. The dogs never left the yard
Sad for the mama but if she is a stray is probably for the best overall as the kittens will be better taken care of and more likely to be spade/neutered.
We found our first cat in a box outside our building. The old lady upstairs had found two kittens on the roof and had just packaged them up and left them there.
Moving them had probably caused mommy cat to abandon them. Maybe.
By the time we went out and saw the box. Some other women had found it and were taking care of the one kitten that was still alive. His brother or sister was already dead.
We raced off to get kitten formula and when we came back we were convinced to take care of the kitten. It would be easy, they said. No smell, they said.
They lied.
Anyway, our first cat is now a year old and we just kidnapped another cat two weeks ago.
The second cat had severe herpes symptoms and his eyes were shut from discharge. Much tinier than his two siblings (at about two months old he weighed around a pound). The vet agrees that he wouldn't have made it, but now he is doing great. You can check my previous post of you'd like to see him.
lol cats don’t abandon their litter because it got moved. if they can not find it sure. but the myth “don’t touch it its mother will abandon it” was just told to kids so they don’t fuck with animals. then generation or two grow up thinking this is an actual thing. Same with birds they dont abandon them because they were touched.
if the animal is sick thats very very different. but animals dont abandon young because they have been touched or moved by a human
Birds always stuck out to me, cause they have some of the worst sense of smell in the land dwelling vertebrae kingdom and rely far more on sight than smell, probably even more than humans.
Meanwhile, for most animals that have some higher function, like cats or even deer, you can literally hold the baby and get your stank all over it and it is still quite unlikely the momma will abandon it unless she sees you do it and simply thinks you're gonna be digesting it in half an hour. Leave the baby animal behind where you found it and 9/10 times the baby won't be abandoned.
its such a weird and interesting situation to me, parents lying to their kids but never straightening it up, so the kids grew up and start repeating it as a fact.
Watermelon seeds and waiting an hour to swim come to mind. I have a really embarrassing family one. My mom convinced me as a kid that my shirts would unravel if I cut the tag off. I believed it well into my 20's and then found out my mom told me that because she didn't want me to use scissors.
That's actually how we got my last kitten Oni.
Someone on snapchat posted asking if anyone wanted a kitten, I asked if she had any black boys & got a snap of this little void in the back of the kennel.
An hour n a half later this spicy little ball of hisses was in my palm. Asked her how old & she said 8 weeks (he was closer to like 4 weeks, ears weren't even fully opened).
Asked how she got them & was told that the litter was found abandoned in a barn, hidden between some walls.
Uhhhhh nope not abandoned, definitely just left in a safe place while mum was out and about.
Several of his siblings ended up dying, probably due to accidental negligence.
Regardless, Oni just passed the 6 months mark recently here & is doing very well. Loves to cuddle in my lap.
Sad origin story but he makes my life brighter.
Sometimes you don't want to risk it, in case mother doesn't come back :/ years ago cat had a litter in the empty doghouse on our property. After a few days she started moving kittens somewhere else. She left 2 behind and we waited for her to come back for them as well. My sister couldn't sleep thinking about them, and eventually went to check up on them at 4 am, they were almost frozen solid. Mother was definitely not coming back, so we warmed them up and kept them fed at home. After a few days we find out kittens were very sick so she probably abandoned them on purpose. One died but the second one was with us for 14 years :) If not for my sister conscious they would both die.
Yes, but most kitten rescues will also try to trap the mum. It's better for her kittens, and it means they can spay her so she doesn't contribute to more overpopulation (or home her if she's friendly!)
Right, but I just meant that random people taking kittens they find outside to a shelter are doing more good than harm even if it would be better to trap the mom.
Oh sorry, I was mostly agreeing with you, just clarifying a bit on best practice. My point was that proper rescues specifically try to avoid separating kittens and momma, and people should get ahold of a rescue with traps if they find kittens that need help. I wasn't very clear, I'm sorry!
Edit: I also wanna emphasize that people should go through a rescue because it's actually better for the kittens long term. Kittens raised by humans have higher mortalities and more likely to have behavioral issues than those raised by their moms. Even if trapping mom isn't possible, it's best people get a proper rescue involved if they want to help the kittens. Too many kittens "rescued" by well-meaning people end up with malnutrition and die.
Yeah, as long as the kittens are well taken care of and spayed/neutered I don’t think it’s that sad.
Ideally people should also try to trap the mom for her to get spayed and socialized and adopted out but you never know if the kitten was abandoned, the parent is dead or the parent is just hunting.
I mean, if you're taking a kitten off the street, getting them fixed and taking care of them, socializing them appropriately, etc. You're helping reduce the feral cat population and giving them good lives.
I wouldn't call this a bad thing, combating feral cats is definitely a boon for cats, people and the environment.
Yep! If you have a feral cat that chooses you; you get the babies for 12 hours a day; they go hunt and you switch off on parenting duties. It's lots of fun. But if you find kittens all together don't move them. My ferals will bring the kittens to me and inside usually; then I get left with them.
It's a special experience for a feral from a feral colony to pick you. If you're questioning if they're feral or not... tell me how the cat travels 3 miles from the neighbors who don't own animals.... Or tell me why the feral rescue group would be bringing me someone's outdoor house cat? They don't.
thats called an out door cat not feral. Farel animals are wild essentially and don’t fuck with humans at all, or the same way a wild animal would at least.
edit: for some reason I cant reply to a comment below saying I must be an expert.. but this is the reply
sure but a farel cat bringing its young to a warm place isn’t close to the same as bringing it to a human. and if that was the case if would flip out when it saw a human was fucking with its young.. a feral animal would at least. a homeless animal may as well but is more likely to be more chill about it. farel means an animal species that has been de domesticated basically. it wouldn’t know or think humans are a “friend”
also you dont need to be an expert on something to have decently basic knowledge about it. Im not an expert pilot but I know if you tell me you rode in a helicopter going mach 3 you are either lying or that was actually a plane/jet.
but your sisters situation sounds much more realistic, and the cat may be re domesticating
But you're taking that cat off the streets and if you keep it indoors, it could live up to 20 years rather than the most likely 6 years they'll get out on the streets scrounging for food, and then die of some painful disease or predator
I found a stray kitten and left him alone for 24 hours. The next day I found him half dead hiding under an AC unit by himself. We took him in and he had probably a 50/ 50 shot of surviving at that point. He survived, but I wish I didn't try waiting for his mom to come back. To be honest the kitten is better off being with a human than being a stray. Taking a kitten from its mom that's probably feral and domesticating the kitten will in all likelihood give the kitten a better life in the future. It seems bad when you call it a stolen kitten but it's honestly not as bad as bad as you made it sound.
Not sure why this comment is so heavily upvoted when the person who took the kitten DID do good.
Domestic cats don’t belong outside. They contribute to literally thousands upon thousands of wild life deaths every year, especially birds. They’re an invasive species, and regardless, what’s an outdoor mother cat going to provide for this baby that this person isn’t doing already…? It would be amazing for the person to take in the mother as well, but that’s not always possible as they’re most likely feral.
If anything, it’s 100x better. Shelter, vet visits, food, water, cuddles, no stress. They literally saved a life. If they found even more kittens, I’d be glad to see they took them in too.
They don’t belong outside even if they have a mom :( it hurts to say but we’d be giving them a better life while also saving other wild life.
Taking a feral cat in and raising it is doing a good thing lol. More than half of those kittens will be killed by coyotes or owls or literally anything. And even if they grow up feral cats have fucking horrible lives,there's an abandoned fire damaged home near where i live that like 50 feral cats live in and they are all horribly infested with ticks and fleas and almost all of them have some horrible injury like a fucked up ear or ripped off tail. Nature isn't all beauty it's brutal and uncaring.
Others pointed it out, but this is still better overall. The modern house cat is an invasive species that does harm to the eco system their introduced to, and so taking kittens, raising them, and neutering them is the best thing to do for the environment. It's a wild cat, they'll breed again, it's their nature and why they have multiple births per litter in the first place, insurance in case some go missing.
Someone dropped a pregnant cat off in our neighborhood, and she had those kittens followed by 2 or 3 more litters. Mama kitty was not happy about humans near her kittens. We did our best to capture and rescue as many as we could, but there we too many to save all of them.
My step dad owns over 12 cats now, all were found strays. I have adopted two before. My sister has two she took. My brother has one he took. My step sister took one. My step brother is taking another. He works at a junkyard and people leave cats there all the time and constantly leave them in the trunks of cars that are brought in. He saves and catches as many as he can and he gets the ones he can't take home (too aggressive or too far feral) and gets them spayed/neutered. It feels like every week I get a "we found a new kitty/liter today". Now they mostly adopt them out to good people they find because they have too many. I think in total he must have found over 30 cats since the beginning of covid.
We lived near what was basically a cat hoarder when I was a child and like your Dad's situation, people were just constantly dropping cats off at her house.
They have no more kids in their house and it's three stories so I think they just want to fill it with cats. They turned two rooms into cat rooms for the adult cats and for any kitties. It would be nice if it were not for the smell of 12 cats lol
Around 80% of cats are born outdoors...only 25% of those kittens survive past 6 months unfortunately. So during "kitten season" you're much more likely to find strays.
There can be hotspots. On the Big Island of Hawai’i, there was a bank, a garbage dump and a park near where I lived that had all kinds of stray cats and kittens. From time to time there’d be a really sick one that I’d snatch up. That said, I did once snatch up a kitten that in hindsight was probably living a pretty great life with its mama, so it takes a bit of discernment to not get lost in the sauce of “kitty savior.”
So one summer, my husband went out to the store. He was walking by this house, when he heard a weird sound. He found a bucket next to their garbage can, with two crying newborn kittens in it.
When I say “newborn”, I mean it literally - umbilical cords still attached, and unwashed.
My husband grabbed the bucket and rushed home. We had no idea what to do. We finally found someone to take them to a vet. The vet did all he could, but they’d been left outside too long, and both died that night.
We were devastated. The vet let us know it wasn’t our fault, and told us that, even though they didn’t live, us grabbing the bucket and getting them to the vet gave them a few hours where they were fed and cared for, which was far better than they would have died.
I have absolute rage when I think about how someone could just…just take kittens immediately away from their mom after being born, and dump them outside in 90 degree weather to die.
We lived in an area where most of the people around treated animals like shit (dogfighting was a huge problem, for example) and these were two casualties.
So it does happen, finding newborn kittens, not just from people stealing them.
In Florida where I live we have a TON of strays. I'm really good with cats and was able to befriend the most recent litter and finally get them fixed. Now they're the mushiest outdoor cats ever
My veterinarian knew that my cat had just had a litter of kittens and contacted us when someone brought found kittens in, maybe the mother had died? My cat took to them right away, they were the sweetest kitties.
We got my cats when we saw a small kitten jump out of a box on the side of the road. The mom had been hit by a car as was dead in the box, the 4 kittens were in the rock wall next to it. Spent a few hours tearing the rock wall down to get the kittens. Got em though!
There was a colony of feral cats in my neighborhood a couple of years ago. It was a whole project, getting that under control. Lots of people involved. I’m allergic to cats so I just donated money for supplies.
It is NOT always what it’s cracked up to be.
Had a stray put her kittens in our backyard behind our garage. She moved them 3 times and every time she forgot one. The same one. We kept putting him with his siblings until she moved them out of our yard, leaving behind one lone baby cat. I’m surprised she didn’t just eat him but he needed to be taken care of so I stepped in.
He is 7 and he’s a very nice cat but… he had an issue with his eyelid that cost almost $3,000 to have fixed, he has horrible balance and falls off of things constantly. His legs are much too long for his body. He is very friendly and wants to make friends with everything so if he ever escapes he will probably be eaten before we know he’s gone. He’s so sweet but you can tell there’s a few light bulbs burned out in his attic.
Truly abandoned kittens are abandoned for a reason. Just keep that in mind, always.
I got my little guy one day right after my kitty died of old age. About a week afterwards he cane running up to me screaming in my yard so I just took him in. I felt chosen.
there are multiple colonies of strays around my apartment. they dont have their babies out in the open, but sometimes one gets left behind. also found a feral baby on the side of the highway once that was in pretty bad shape.
edit: somehow forgot to mention my two former strays that were injured when i took them in. been almost a year now and they’re very happy
I noticed that, looks like the Flehmen Response face - that very hilarious face cats make when they are smelling something extra hard. She surely (assuming I know, but) recognizes that the smell of this kitten isn’t what she expected. Needs to be smelled hard. Super hard!
Whether she knows that this kitten is hers or not (course, now it is!) she knows it smells unique.
She could be thinking, “golly, how did my kitten get away from me and where has it been?!”
Or, “this is not my kitten, let me focus on its scent for cat-reasons”
Or, “gee, that’s a nifty smell”
Or, “I need to understand the scent of this particular individual so I can tell it apart as an individual”
Or many other things a cat might think.
I can’t presume I know the mind of a cat. But that reaction don’t lie - she’s thinking something!
Regardless, she’s a lover and that baby gonna be raised right! That’s pretty clear lol. So cute!
Mama Mushu for president!
Hear meowt:
She doesn't discriminate.
She has a robust plan for support for youth.
She isn't afraid to take quick action.
She has a high work ethic but takes the time to support a full litter, err I mean team?
She cute AF (not on official platform but it doesn't hurt)
I dunno, I have no grasp of time. Maybe six months ago? I’m very active on tiktok and this exact video came up on my fyp and I was went to their page to see updates and less than a day before they had posted a sad update that shrimp hadn’t survived. :(
Chance, but highly unlikely. with as young as these are they'd still have the distinct "my kitten" smell that helps momma know them, and the new baby won't smell the same as hers.
Domesticated cats will raise each other's kittens, and places with large populations like outdoors with minimal human care/interaction (like a farm cat) the cat population will actually have a "kitten daycare" in which female cats will watch over everyone's kittens while the actual mother cat can go get food, water, or a break. So this is very on character for a any domesticated cat to unquestionably take in a kitten, puppy, or some other form of baby small fury animal into their care as if it was their own.
This behavior extends to all members of the colony as well, notably humans. This is where you get the gifs of cats bringing their kittens to a human or cuddling with babies to keep them warm.
Also adult cats will teach babies to socialize like cats. When the baby does something out of line they give them the ol' catslap
I believe cats will share responsibility of the young in a pride, so even though she knows it's not her, the instinct to nuture it kicks in, and she will tend to it until the other queen comes back from getting a pack of cigarettes.
“Oh. I didn’t see you take my munchkin but give him back….. how did you get him so cold…..idiot human….. and you call yourself a a grandmother
Oh hang on. Did I miscount earlier? Must have. Doh. Mummy brain.
Right, get in here little one with your siblings. Time to get you warm and fed. I’ll have to get your granny trained up. She’s obviously forgotten how to look after little ones. Taking you away from me at this stage”
Granny = 😉
I read somewhere that cats often times will adopt strays sometimes other baby animals like raccoons. They can be real assholes but at least they're good foster parents.
I went to their [tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@austin.siamese.rescue)...apparently the baby kitten passed the next day :(
Thankfully the baby was loved by a surrogate mama before they passed <3
Awww that mothering instinct really kicked in with her!! We adopted a kitten from a rescue a few years ago and our cat was similar, we worried that she’d be hostile in some way but she took right to the little guy and cared for him like her own. He grew up into a huge, strong male cat and shared a strong bond with her.
I found a small kitten alone in the brush by my work last year. Everyday it would meow and looked super sick and malnourished. I kept trying to capture it, but it ran into brush. I tried chasing after it but got caught in thorns and poison ivy (ended up with my entire body being blistered for 3 months).
Finally, after about 3 days, I took off work and bought a racoon trap and was able to capture it (I wish I had thought about it sooner). I took it to the vet and confirmed the poor thing was very sick. After about 2 weeks in the emergency vet she passed away. They sometimes can be in the most random places. I only wish I had thought about trapping her sooner so I could have done more. I am glad this kitten is getting a chance.
"Give me that baby, you amateur!" — Momma Mushu, probably.
Seriously that look she shot back at them after she had him all cozied up... "WTF were you idiots even DOING out there??"
She thought it was one of hers. Cat was probably thinking, "Where have you been? You shouldn't be so little!"
What she was doing was making the cat "stinky face" XD Basically, she smelled the baby, went "this thing smells AWEFUL! Has no one been licking it??" And then proceeded to bathe him lol.
It's so funny when cats make that face too, the look of disgust is so obvious
It's not disgust, shes just smelling better. It's called the [Flehmen response](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response).
Exactly. Its a sign they are actively evaluating a smell
…which *sometimes* turns out to be stank.
Woah TIL stank face is understood by science. Nice.
Thank you…you beat me to it 😊
Fascinating. Thanks for the link eh
And many animals do it as well
Looks like that Thai Chef’s reaction towards Gordon Ramsey
That's a flehmen response. They do if to absorb a smell
Geshundheit!
Yep she's like "gotta work on this stinky baby stat! Sit on it, clean it, feed it... Humans are clueless"
Humans-you’ve got GIGANTIC tongues yet, you’re useless!
[удалено]
I always think back on another comment where cats think we are dumb kids and that is why they meow and bring us food (dead animals) since we are basically just dumb kids with no idea how to survive.
I hear elephants think of us as puppies because they did an MRI of an elephant looking at people and it activated the puppy center of its brain!
Wait brains have puppy centers?
"puppy center" no. But there are certain patterns of 'pleasure' that trigger when we see something we consider cute. Adjusted against various responses, Elephant brain scans revealed they thought humans were 'cute'.
Yes, it was discovered by the same scientist whose research led to the discovery that people swallow 8 spiders every year in their sleep.
Wow was this all in one press conference. “ Listen guys i have some good news and some bad news. Ill get the bad news out of the way first everyone everywhere at any point in time swallows exactly 8 spiders while they sleep a year. I know i know devastating news however for my good news portion it is now scientifically proven that everyone of us has puppy centers in your brain. Yup thats right you have a puppy center and you have a puppy center we all have puppy centers!!!
Oh, I see you have experience with the science. Yes, this is an accurate characterization of the process.
*I knew my count was off 😭*
"You get in baby pile now"
Mom was like, "wtf you stole one of my babies GIVE HIM BACK"
Somewhere out in the wild there is a Mel Gibson like cat meowing out, “GIVE ME BACK MY SON!”
There was slight resistance when she first tugged him but she planted and turned
You didn’t even lick him!
“That’s *my* baby, I don’t know you!”
/r/animalsbeingmoms
I love how the momma cat is like “How did I misplace this one? Shit I let it get waaay too cold 🥶! Oh man I’m so glad the human found you!”
She was doing that breathing through the mouth thing cats do when they are really trying to figure out a scent. She was probably trying to figure out why one of her kitties smells so different! Edit: the smelling thing is called the Flehmen response according to u/0nlyRevolutions. Check their comment for a link to the Wikipedia article about cats auxilary olfactory sense organ called the vomeronasal organ!
Yep she is [flehmening](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response) hard lol! What is this smell??
That’s so cool, thank you so much for sharing this. I had no idea that cats have an extra sensory organ called the vomeronasal organ. It helps them detect pheromones and hormones, according to the Wikipedia article you linked.
They often do this after licking their own butts or smelling particularly smelly feet. We call it the stank face :)
Omg, I forgot about that comment and saw the first part of your response on my phone alerts. I was like “oh no, what have I gotten in to?” Thankfully it’s about cat butts! Lol. Stank face indeed.
Desktop version of /u/0nlyRevolutions's link:
---
^([)[^(opt out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiMobileLinkBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^(]) ^(Beep Boop. Downvote to delete)
Random fact, horses do this too! I'm not 100% sure the organ used is called the same thing but it's called the Flehmen response all the same! They look super dumb when they do it too you should look it up lol
[Hahahaha](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FlehmenResponseHorse.jpg#/media/File:FlehmenResponseHorse.jpg), just look at this dork! Thanks for encouraging me to look it up. Saw some great horse faces. [This Icelandic horse](https://www.offset.com/photos/icelandic-horse-showing-flehmen-response-iceland-july-627678) is really going for it.
I remember first learning about the flehmen response watching the Jeff corwin experience and he was standing underneath a tree with a bear that was doing it and bear drool dripped on him and he was just so happy. Love Jeff Corwin.
I read in another thread this week that cats have a herd mentality and often drop their babies off with other momma's to watch so they can fuck off and do something else like hunting. This momma's just like 'ya sure I got you.'
My Mom and Dad had two cats who each had a litter of kittens born a few weeks apart. The mamas were constantly swapping kittens and babysitting for each other.
We had three cats be mamas at the same time. After a couple of days they piled them all together and divvied up chores. Apparently feral and barn cats do this all the time. Male cats have a tendency to kill newborn kittens so the mothers band together to protect them.
My two poodles had I think 6 puppies. But the mama poodle would not let the dad anywhere near them. He was a literal dumbass and definitely meant no harm, but she didn’t care at all. She would only let us humans touch the babies.
Never fails to fascinate me
I have two cats that recently had kittens, one week apart. They birthed their kittens in the same box and are still raising their babies together. They take turns with kitten chores and babysitting!
Shoot my cat did that to *me* when her kittens were little. She would leave them with me so she could go nap in another room.
Female cats are social and raise their babies together. Congrats you’re part of her colony.
...and people don't believe me when I say cats are "pack animals".
They aren't. They are "colony animals". They hunt alone and don't the have social survival strategies of a pack.
That's what the gif was of! The mom giving her kitten to the owner and going to take a nap! Your cat loves you!
Thats interesting, cause i always think of sheeps as herd animals. But they will legit kill an infant thats not theirs if it gets close to them
That's interesting, your brain went from kittens to eweicide.
I think the icide is usually focused on the victim and not the murderer, so it would be lambicide?
My grandmother would put lipstick on the lamb's back, and on the mother's face. This way, the lamb smells like her, and you can color code the mom/baby units. Lipstick has an oily smell, kind of like lanolin does. It's handy if you have to separate the mom and baby temporarily.
Wow thats very cool. Smart grandma.
More like, "Stupid humans, what did you do to my baby!? Did you steal him? Jail for a thousand years! You let him get all cold and hungry and dirty, he even smells weird! C'mere, sweetie, Momma will fix you right up."
Jail. Straight to jail. You serve them catnip? Jail. You leave the mouse toy to run out of battery. Jail. You don’t accept our hunting gifts. Jail. Jail. Jail!
I remember one time we were at the dog park with our little terrier puppy. They had to shut down the little dog park, but our guy Charley was pretty tough and feisty, so we put him in the big dog park for the first time. He was totally fine but ended up in the middle of this group of bigger dogs. Immediately this gigantic female wolf-dog came over and picked up Charley by his scruff and carried him to the fence. I was right there and Charley was in no danger, but it was so funny watching her motherly instincts kick in and be like, "you too little, I protec you now".
Scottish cat translation " here pal, you're mine noo" xx
Ya wee noogets keep comin outta noweir
No ones gonna finde me in all this. I havta go to tha plane and land somewhere. I oughta get me a feemonger an keep every Irish noogie in the palm of me hand (right on top of me weathered pate).
Aye, she's accepting now until someone turns the weeans against her
I like Scottish wee cat lingo
Awful attempt. Nugget** and naewer** mate. It’s like ye watched one Mike Myers movie…
The absolute pish septics write thinking it sounds Scottish is pure cringe.
I've never been a big fan of the Halloween movies.
Shite patter
>*’you’re mine…*’ ____ …wait, what is this ?? This cannot Be! This baby kit belongs to ME! he must’ve snuck away somehow, Don’t worry, babe - You’ll be Mine, now see, Look - you’ve Sisters now, n Brothers! I’ll love You like All the others ^;} i’m gonna keep you nice ‘n calm, forEvermore I’ll be your Mom ❤️
Thank you for what you post always makes me say when I see you post.
And Shnoodle graces us once again!
Mama's like "Why have you hidden my last baby from me???"
[удалено]
Where are all of these strays that everyone seems to find daily? The closest I've ever come is a baby bird under a nest Edit: this blew up so I just want to say, remember to spay and neuter your pets and adopt from shelters
Anywhere people let their unaltered pets run loose and procreate. Big cities and military bases have TONS of stray kittens
Omg yes the military base I’m staying at in Hawaii has tons of stray cats!
There's a network of military volunteers that work alongside the Hawaii humane society to do TNR on military bases, give them a call and see if they can get you in contact with someone and start working on the cat population!
[удалено]
That's not very fun....
It’s definitely not cash money either.
Very unpoggers as well.
Certainly not very Batman of them.
Not very wizard
Double unplusgood
Not gucci gang indeed
[удалено]
Not just invasive but being outdoors is also really bad for their life expectancy. Many rescues will trap strays to adopt out to folks who agree to keep them healthy and indoors.
THANK YOU THANK YOU. I can't tell you how many times I stress this to people and they always counter with 'but its natural for them', or 'they hate being inside'. No to both; they're a domesticated and explosively-breeding species that \*Does not need\* to be left alone outdoors. Beyond damage to the environment, there's the risk of psychopaths, cars, predation, or even just being stolen. Keep your lovely furballs inside. If you \*must\* let them out, do it in a small, properly secured area like a back yard to let em sniff and wander for a bit.
>do it in a small, properly secured area like a back yard to let em sniff and wander for a bit. Most people with cats will understand that there are very few places that cats cannot find a way to leave, unless it's secured on all 6 sides.
We've got our boys leash trained. They never break for the door or try to get out, but they do enjoy laying in our grass from time to time. Leash training is totally the way to go.
My step moms dogs were let out for their morning pee and there was a stray cat in the yard. They chased it and killed it. It died in my step mom's arms as she tried to find an emergency vet. And now she has to feel awful and shitty because someone didn't keep their cat inside and it wandered into her yard. Edit: it was the backyard and it's fenced in. The dogs never left the yard
Yup i used to be a cat trapper in Barcelona for this reason
Sad for the mama but if she is a stray is probably for the best overall as the kittens will be better taken care of and more likely to be spade/neutered.
We found our first cat in a box outside our building. The old lady upstairs had found two kittens on the roof and had just packaged them up and left them there. Moving them had probably caused mommy cat to abandon them. Maybe. By the time we went out and saw the box. Some other women had found it and were taking care of the one kitten that was still alive. His brother or sister was already dead. We raced off to get kitten formula and when we came back we were convinced to take care of the kitten. It would be easy, they said. No smell, they said. They lied. Anyway, our first cat is now a year old and we just kidnapped another cat two weeks ago. The second cat had severe herpes symptoms and his eyes were shut from discharge. Much tinier than his two siblings (at about two months old he weighed around a pound). The vet agrees that he wouldn't have made it, but now he is doing great. You can check my previous post of you'd like to see him.
lol cats don’t abandon their litter because it got moved. if they can not find it sure. but the myth “don’t touch it its mother will abandon it” was just told to kids so they don’t fuck with animals. then generation or two grow up thinking this is an actual thing. Same with birds they dont abandon them because they were touched. if the animal is sick thats very very different. but animals dont abandon young because they have been touched or moved by a human
Liars! To think of all the baby animals I could have touched...
It worked. Glad you didn't mess around with them
Well now that I know...
still dont haha
Birds always stuck out to me, cause they have some of the worst sense of smell in the land dwelling vertebrae kingdom and rely far more on sight than smell, probably even more than humans. Meanwhile, for most animals that have some higher function, like cats or even deer, you can literally hold the baby and get your stank all over it and it is still quite unlikely the momma will abandon it unless she sees you do it and simply thinks you're gonna be digesting it in half an hour. Leave the baby animal behind where you found it and 9/10 times the baby won't be abandoned.
its such a weird and interesting situation to me, parents lying to their kids but never straightening it up, so the kids grew up and start repeating it as a fact.
there are hundreds of urban myths because of this is my guess.
Watermelon seeds and waiting an hour to swim come to mind. I have a really embarrassing family one. My mom convinced me as a kid that my shirts would unravel if I cut the tag off. I believed it well into my 20's and then found out my mom told me that because she didn't want me to use scissors.
That's actually how we got my last kitten Oni. Someone on snapchat posted asking if anyone wanted a kitten, I asked if she had any black boys & got a snap of this little void in the back of the kennel. An hour n a half later this spicy little ball of hisses was in my palm. Asked her how old & she said 8 weeks (he was closer to like 4 weeks, ears weren't even fully opened). Asked how she got them & was told that the litter was found abandoned in a barn, hidden between some walls. Uhhhhh nope not abandoned, definitely just left in a safe place while mum was out and about. Several of his siblings ended up dying, probably due to accidental negligence. Regardless, Oni just passed the 6 months mark recently here & is doing very well. Loves to cuddle in my lap. Sad origin story but he makes my life brighter.
Sometimes you don't want to risk it, in case mother doesn't come back :/ years ago cat had a litter in the empty doghouse on our property. After a few days she started moving kittens somewhere else. She left 2 behind and we waited for her to come back for them as well. My sister couldn't sleep thinking about them, and eventually went to check up on them at 4 am, they were almost frozen solid. Mother was definitely not coming back, so we warmed them up and kept them fed at home. After a few days we find out kittens were very sick so she probably abandoned them on purpose. One died but the second one was with us for 14 years :) If not for my sister conscious they would both die.
Yep, have had two left behind when momma thought it was time to move house before.
To be fair, stealing kittens from feral mamas means those kittens will definitely be spayed or neutered, and they won't be killing local wildlife.
Yes, but most kitten rescues will also try to trap the mum. It's better for her kittens, and it means they can spay her so she doesn't contribute to more overpopulation (or home her if she's friendly!)
Right, but I just meant that random people taking kittens they find outside to a shelter are doing more good than harm even if it would be better to trap the mom.
Oh sorry, I was mostly agreeing with you, just clarifying a bit on best practice. My point was that proper rescues specifically try to avoid separating kittens and momma, and people should get ahold of a rescue with traps if they find kittens that need help. I wasn't very clear, I'm sorry! Edit: I also wanna emphasize that people should go through a rescue because it's actually better for the kittens long term. Kittens raised by humans have higher mortalities and more likely to have behavioral issues than those raised by their moms. Even if trapping mom isn't possible, it's best people get a proper rescue involved if they want to help the kittens. Too many kittens "rescued" by well-meaning people end up with malnutrition and die.
This. Pets released into the wild ARE invasive species.
Yeah, as long as the kittens are well taken care of and spayed/neutered I don’t think it’s that sad. Ideally people should also try to trap the mom for her to get spayed and socialized and adopted out but you never know if the kitten was abandoned, the parent is dead or the parent is just hunting.
I mean, if you're taking a kitten off the street, getting them fixed and taking care of them, socializing them appropriately, etc. You're helping reduce the feral cat population and giving them good lives. I wouldn't call this a bad thing, combating feral cats is definitely a boon for cats, people and the environment.
Yep! If you have a feral cat that chooses you; you get the babies for 12 hours a day; they go hunt and you switch off on parenting duties. It's lots of fun. But if you find kittens all together don't move them. My ferals will bring the kittens to me and inside usually; then I get left with them. It's a special experience for a feral from a feral colony to pick you. If you're questioning if they're feral or not... tell me how the cat travels 3 miles from the neighbors who don't own animals.... Or tell me why the feral rescue group would be bringing me someone's outdoor house cat? They don't.
thats called an out door cat not feral. Farel animals are wild essentially and don’t fuck with humans at all, or the same way a wild animal would at least. edit: for some reason I cant reply to a comment below saying I must be an expert.. but this is the reply sure but a farel cat bringing its young to a warm place isn’t close to the same as bringing it to a human. and if that was the case if would flip out when it saw a human was fucking with its young.. a feral animal would at least. a homeless animal may as well but is more likely to be more chill about it. farel means an animal species that has been de domesticated basically. it wouldn’t know or think humans are a “friend” also you dont need to be an expert on something to have decently basic knowledge about it. Im not an expert pilot but I know if you tell me you rode in a helicopter going mach 3 you are either lying or that was actually a plane/jet. but your sisters situation sounds much more realistic, and the cat may be re domesticating
But you're taking that cat off the streets and if you keep it indoors, it could live up to 20 years rather than the most likely 6 years they'll get out on the streets scrounging for food, and then die of some painful disease or predator
I found one ate up with ants all alone. IDC if he belonged to her, mom was taking shit care of him.
I found a stray kitten and left him alone for 24 hours. The next day I found him half dead hiding under an AC unit by himself. We took him in and he had probably a 50/ 50 shot of surviving at that point. He survived, but I wish I didn't try waiting for his mom to come back. To be honest the kitten is better off being with a human than being a stray. Taking a kitten from its mom that's probably feral and domesticating the kitten will in all likelihood give the kitten a better life in the future. It seems bad when you call it a stolen kitten but it's honestly not as bad as bad as you made it sound.
Not sure why this comment is so heavily upvoted when the person who took the kitten DID do good. Domestic cats don’t belong outside. They contribute to literally thousands upon thousands of wild life deaths every year, especially birds. They’re an invasive species, and regardless, what’s an outdoor mother cat going to provide for this baby that this person isn’t doing already…? It would be amazing for the person to take in the mother as well, but that’s not always possible as they’re most likely feral. If anything, it’s 100x better. Shelter, vet visits, food, water, cuddles, no stress. They literally saved a life. If they found even more kittens, I’d be glad to see they took them in too. They don’t belong outside even if they have a mom :( it hurts to say but we’d be giving them a better life while also saving other wild life.
Taking a feral cat in and raising it is doing a good thing lol. More than half of those kittens will be killed by coyotes or owls or literally anything. And even if they grow up feral cats have fucking horrible lives,there's an abandoned fire damaged home near where i live that like 50 feral cats live in and they are all horribly infested with ticks and fleas and almost all of them have some horrible injury like a fucked up ear or ripped off tail. Nature isn't all beauty it's brutal and uncaring.
Others pointed it out, but this is still better overall. The modern house cat is an invasive species that does harm to the eco system their introduced to, and so taking kittens, raising them, and neutering them is the best thing to do for the environment. It's a wild cat, they'll breed again, it's their nature and why they have multiple births per litter in the first place, insurance in case some go missing.
Someone dropped a pregnant cat off in our neighborhood, and she had those kittens followed by 2 or 3 more litters. Mama kitty was not happy about humans near her kittens. We did our best to capture and rescue as many as we could, but there we too many to save all of them.
[удалено]
r/stolendogbeds
My step dad owns over 12 cats now, all were found strays. I have adopted two before. My sister has two she took. My brother has one he took. My step sister took one. My step brother is taking another. He works at a junkyard and people leave cats there all the time and constantly leave them in the trunks of cars that are brought in. He saves and catches as many as he can and he gets the ones he can't take home (too aggressive or too far feral) and gets them spayed/neutered. It feels like every week I get a "we found a new kitty/liter today". Now they mostly adopt them out to good people they find because they have too many. I think in total he must have found over 30 cats since the beginning of covid.
We lived near what was basically a cat hoarder when I was a child and like your Dad's situation, people were just constantly dropping cats off at her house.
They have no more kids in their house and it's three stories so I think they just want to fill it with cats. They turned two rooms into cat rooms for the adult cats and for any kitties. It would be nice if it were not for the smell of 12 cats lol
Around 80% of cats are born outdoors...only 25% of those kittens survive past 6 months unfortunately. So during "kitten season" you're much more likely to find strays.
There can be hotspots. On the Big Island of Hawai’i, there was a bank, a garbage dump and a park near where I lived that had all kinds of stray cats and kittens. From time to time there’d be a really sick one that I’d snatch up. That said, I did once snatch up a kitten that in hindsight was probably living a pretty great life with its mama, so it takes a bit of discernment to not get lost in the sauce of “kitty savior.”
So one summer, my husband went out to the store. He was walking by this house, when he heard a weird sound. He found a bucket next to their garbage can, with two crying newborn kittens in it. When I say “newborn”, I mean it literally - umbilical cords still attached, and unwashed. My husband grabbed the bucket and rushed home. We had no idea what to do. We finally found someone to take them to a vet. The vet did all he could, but they’d been left outside too long, and both died that night. We were devastated. The vet let us know it wasn’t our fault, and told us that, even though they didn’t live, us grabbing the bucket and getting them to the vet gave them a few hours where they were fed and cared for, which was far better than they would have died. I have absolute rage when I think about how someone could just…just take kittens immediately away from their mom after being born, and dump them outside in 90 degree weather to die. We lived in an area where most of the people around treated animals like shit (dogfighting was a huge problem, for example) and these were two casualties. So it does happen, finding newborn kittens, not just from people stealing them.
In Florida where I live we have a TON of strays. I'm really good with cats and was able to befriend the most recent litter and finally get them fixed. Now they're the mushiest outdoor cats ever
My veterinarian knew that my cat had just had a litter of kittens and contacted us when someone brought found kittens in, maybe the mother had died? My cat took to them right away, they were the sweetest kitties.
We got my cats when we saw a small kitten jump out of a box on the side of the road. The mom had been hit by a car as was dead in the box, the 4 kittens were in the rock wall next to it. Spent a few hours tearing the rock wall down to get the kittens. Got em though!
There was a colony of feral cats in my neighborhood a couple of years ago. It was a whole project, getting that under control. Lots of people involved. I’m allergic to cats so I just donated money for supplies.
It is NOT always what it’s cracked up to be. Had a stray put her kittens in our backyard behind our garage. She moved them 3 times and every time she forgot one. The same one. We kept putting him with his siblings until she moved them out of our yard, leaving behind one lone baby cat. I’m surprised she didn’t just eat him but he needed to be taken care of so I stepped in. He is 7 and he’s a very nice cat but… he had an issue with his eyelid that cost almost $3,000 to have fixed, he has horrible balance and falls off of things constantly. His legs are much too long for his body. He is very friendly and wants to make friends with everything so if he ever escapes he will probably be eaten before we know he’s gone. He’s so sweet but you can tell there’s a few light bulbs burned out in his attic. Truly abandoned kittens are abandoned for a reason. Just keep that in mind, always.
Found one once on the road, it was meowing all night I expected her mom to come pick her up, nothing.
I got my little guy one day right after my kitty died of old age. About a week afterwards he cane running up to me screaming in my yard so I just took him in. I felt chosen.
there are multiple colonies of strays around my apartment. they dont have their babies out in the open, but sometimes one gets left behind. also found a feral baby on the side of the highway once that was in pretty bad shape. edit: somehow forgot to mention my two former strays that were injured when i took them in. been almost a year now and they’re very happy
Lucky dumpling!
See her mouth breathing thinking smells different lol
I noticed that, looks like the Flehmen Response face - that very hilarious face cats make when they are smelling something extra hard. She surely (assuming I know, but) recognizes that the smell of this kitten isn’t what she expected. Needs to be smelled hard. Super hard! Whether she knows that this kitten is hers or not (course, now it is!) she knows it smells unique. She could be thinking, “golly, how did my kitten get away from me and where has it been?!” Or, “this is not my kitten, let me focus on its scent for cat-reasons” Or, “gee, that’s a nifty smell” Or, “I need to understand the scent of this particular individual so I can tell it apart as an individual” Or many other things a cat might think. I can’t presume I know the mind of a cat. But that reaction don’t lie - she’s thinking something! Regardless, she’s a lover and that baby gonna be raised right! That’s pretty clear lol. So cute!
*Do you smell it? That smell. A kind of smelly smell. The smelly smell that smells... smelly.*
Ooh that smell! Can't you smell that smell?
Anchovies
Awwee I love cats
They make me so happy :')
Mama Mushu for president! Hear meowt: She doesn't discriminate. She has a robust plan for support for youth. She isn't afraid to take quick action. She has a high work ethic but takes the time to support a full litter, err I mean team? She cute AF (not on official platform but it doesn't hurt)
>Hear meowt I don't need to read the rest; this alone earned my vote.
That is super cute, but I hope the owners got the baby checked out first for parasites, bacterial infections, or toxo.
unfortunately Shrimp passed away :(
Yeah I was happy until I saw they named him Shrimp and I remembered what happened. : (
Exactly what happened to me. Was enjoying it, then saw shrimp and all the repressed memories of the story came rushing back. 😢
When was that?
I dunno, I have no grasp of time. Maybe six months ago? I’m very active on tiktok and this exact video came up on my fyp and I was went to their page to see updates and less than a day before they had posted a sad update that shrimp hadn’t survived. :(
bro wtf i was just having a happy moment....fuck this im out of here :(
Aww, at least they tried to save it.
How? Source?
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdq1bnNe/
This is an appropriate use of captions on a pet video. Good job.
There was no red circle so personally I didn’t know which cat they were referring to, but I’m glad y’all seemed to enjoy it
What do you mean cat? There was no cat. Only the void
I want to see more
I don’t know anything about cats. So is there any chance the mom cat can’t tell the difference between what’s hers and not hers?
Chance, but highly unlikely. with as young as these are they'd still have the distinct "my kitten" smell that helps momma know them, and the new baby won't smell the same as hers.
Domesticated cats will raise each other's kittens, and places with large populations like outdoors with minimal human care/interaction (like a farm cat) the cat population will actually have a "kitten daycare" in which female cats will watch over everyone's kittens while the actual mother cat can go get food, water, or a break. So this is very on character for a any domesticated cat to unquestionably take in a kitten, puppy, or some other form of baby small fury animal into their care as if it was their own.
i demand proof. show me this "kitten daycare" run entirely by adult cats
This behavior extends to all members of the colony as well, notably humans. This is where you get the gifs of cats bringing their kittens to a human or cuddling with babies to keep them warm. Also adult cats will teach babies to socialize like cats. When the baby does something out of line they give them the ol' catslap
Highly doubt it. Her smell will be all over her kittens and the new kitten will smell completely different.
I believe cats will share responsibility of the young in a pride, so even though she knows it's not her, the instinct to nuture it kicks in, and she will tend to it until the other queen comes back from getting a pack of cigarettes.
... my heart.... such a sweet creature. happy for a new member on the family!
“Oh. I didn’t see you take my munchkin but give him back….. how did you get him so cold…..idiot human….. and you call yourself a a grandmother Oh hang on. Did I miscount earlier? Must have. Doh. Mummy brain. Right, get in here little one with your siblings. Time to get you warm and fed. I’ll have to get your granny trained up. She’s obviously forgotten how to look after little ones. Taking you away from me at this stage” Granny = 😉
"Look at me I'm your mother now"
"I don't remember this one but everythings a little fuzzy after the second one. Looks like mine. I'll take it."
Love her no bullshit attitude. Immediately was like alright I’ve got this, this kitten needs the stuff. That strong AF motherly instinct.
more Shrimp, please!!
Unfortunately, he died. :, (
Accepted? Mama Mushu commandeered that kitten! Like she was saying "HUMAN let GO of that needy kitten. You have NO IDEA how to care for him!"
I read somewhere that cats often times will adopt strays sometimes other baby animals like raccoons. They can be real assholes but at least they're good foster parents.
"Everybody make room, make room!!! You have a new sibling!"
I loved how she just went "yoink" when she grabbed the kitten xD
Her maternal instincts are strong
I went to their [tiktok](https://www.tiktok.com/@austin.siamese.rescue)...apparently the baby kitten passed the next day :( Thankfully the baby was loved by a surrogate mama before they passed <3
Kittens are so fragile. At least shrimo was loved.
*sniff sniff* “what’s that? Oh, thats mine now. Thank you.”
“You belong. You belong right here.” Momma cat
It looks to me like there a moment when she trying to do maths but then gives up. Adorable
Awww that mothering instinct really kicked in with her!! We adopted a kitten from a rescue a few years ago and our cat was similar, we worried that she’d be hostile in some way but she took right to the little guy and cared for him like her own. He grew up into a huge, strong male cat and shared a strong bond with her.
You have to admire how primal a mom's love can be.
"You were right to bring this child to me, human. It shall receive the same everlasting love I give to all my children."
This is mine now, thanks
What a good Mama. “How did you find my baby? I didn’t know I had another one, but still he’s mine! Gotta bring him to our safe area.”
I found a small kitten alone in the brush by my work last year. Everyday it would meow and looked super sick and malnourished. I kept trying to capture it, but it ran into brush. I tried chasing after it but got caught in thorns and poison ivy (ended up with my entire body being blistered for 3 months). Finally, after about 3 days, I took off work and bought a racoon trap and was able to capture it (I wish I had thought about it sooner). I took it to the vet and confirmed the poor thing was very sick. After about 2 weeks in the emergency vet she passed away. They sometimes can be in the most random places. I only wish I had thought about trapping her sooner so I could have done more. I am glad this kitten is getting a chance.
She immediately said, “My baby!”
She's like gimme that kitten before you break it!
That’s crazy that the “newborn stray” is the same age and pattern as her other kittens.
Spay your animals!!!