This Cat Kept Kidnapping The Neighbor’s Puppies. Then They Discovered The Jaw-Dropping Reason Why.
When one woman saw a cat with a little puppy in her mouth, she immediately thought the worst. However, as she watched, she realized that the animal was stealing the baby and taking it home. What’s more, the reason was completely heartwarming.
In Mayesville, South Carolina, a group of neighbors had grown concerned about a local cat. Moreover, it seemed that they had good reason to be worried. That’s because, each day, the cat would run across the trailer park in which she lived and grab a puppy with her teeth.
“We came home one night and there were five puppies missing,” the dogs’ worried owner, Missy Grant, told It’s a Miracle in 2001. “I said, ‘Where did five puppies go?’ I was hunting them, and then my neighbor said that she saw Miss Kitty stealing them.”
Indeed, while their mother wasn’t looking, the cat had snatched the puppies away from their home and dragged them into her trailer. Now that the pups were hidden from public view, no one knew just what she was doing with the innocent little lives. Things were not quite as they seemed, though.
While Miss Kitty the cat and her canine neighbor, Smoochy, had lived together for some time, they largely kept themselves to themselves. But while they hadn’t mixed much with each other up until that point, one day their lives were inextricably interwoven.
The owners of Miss Kitty had discovered that the ginger cat was pregnant, and so they helped to prepare her for becoming a mother. Yes, the fluffy cat couldn’t wait to welcome her kittens to the world.
But that’s when disaster struck. After she gave birth, Miss Kitty sadly lost every one of her kittens, and as you’d expect, the traumatic ordeal left the cat completely distraught.
Of course, it isn’t unusual for cats to lose a small percentage of their litter, and for first-time moms such as Miss Kitty, kitten mortality rates are even higher. There are, indeed, a number of reasons why kittens may not survive.
Nevertheless, Miss Kitty’s world was shattered by the deaths of her babies. The crestfallen cat was completely lost in her grief, and her maternal instincts had already kicked in. Her sole purpose in life was to be a mom, but unfortunately fate had had other ideas.
However, something incredible was about to happen. Around the same time as Miss Kitty’s kittens died, Smoochy gave birth to a litter of adorable Cocker Spaniel puppies. Much to the dismay of Miss Kitty, though, the dog had no interest in her own babies.
“Smoochy didn’t want anything to do with the puppies at all,” Miss Kitty and Smoochy’s owner, Ryan Grant, told It’s a Miracle. “They would be lying around at Smoochy’s house outside. She would just drag [them] around with a chain and pay [them] no attention. Even their whines didn’t mean anything to her.”
As with cats, it’s not uncommon for dogs to reject their litters. Moreover, there are many reasons that they may do so – from puppies being too weak to a mother being too inexperienced. In addition, dogs may simply decide that they have given birth to more puppies than they can look after.
Whatever Smoochy’s reasons, she didn’t want anything to do with her little ones. However, thankfully the puppies had an adoptive mother waiting in the wings. Indeed, having noticed what was going on, Miss Kitty decided to take matters into her own paws.
ADVERTISEMENT
Image: Lotsacats9
That’s when she began “stealing” the puppies, but her intentions were far from sinister. Instead, she would take them somewhere quiet and nurse them. Yes, thanks to Miss Kitty and her leftover milk, the little dogs received all the nutrients they needed.
What’s more, this isn’t the first time that cats have been known to nurse baby dogs. In fact, one shelter in LaGrange, Georgia, has specifically used cats that have recently given birth to feed orphaned puppies. “Since the two cats just had litters, they’re able to nurse,” shelter supervisor Chris Bussy told The Huffington Post in 2016. “It’s like a motherly instinct.”
The Grants’ neighbor, Linda Blackwell, admitted the whole set up was “odd.” However, she added that the cat was simply fulfilling her motherly duties. “The mom don’t see the kids too much so the cat took over,” she said.
