Grieving dog who lost her litter adopts orphaned kittens

Rebecca Speare-Cole1 September 2020

A grieving dog in the US who lost her whole litter after birth has adopted a trio of orphaned kittens.

Sunshine Dog Rescue, based in Phoenix, Arizona, took in the mother, who they named Georgia, and soon realised she was heavily pregnant.

But her entire litter was born prematurely and none survived.

Owners of the animal refuge said Georgia was heartbroken and kept searching for her puppies.

Anita Osa, founder of Sunshine Dog Rescue, told ABC15 Arizona: "I've never had a mom dog lose a whole litter before.

"The best way I could describe it was she was frantic. It was so sad, she was looking for those babies. She tore up the toddler mattress we had her on, trying to find her babies."

In a bid to support Georgia, Ms Osa put out an appeal for motherless puppies on social media but instead a trio of newly-born orphaned kittens arrived.

Georgia immediately bonded with the kittens and the maternal bond grew so strong that she has been able to feed her adopted babies

The shelter wrote on Facebook: "We took in three motherless newborn kittens for Georgia. She LOVES them. So far we have been able to get one to latch and are bottle feeding until the other two figure it out too."

Anita said: "I introduced them to her gently. I first bought one out and let her sniff it, and she seemed to accept it, so I brought the others out. It's amazing to see how she instantly calmed down.

"I think for the kittens, they have no idea that Georgia is a dog."

Anita said: "They do nurse on her. She cleans them and everything but the bond is strong. It's really something to see, she protects those kittens just as if they were her babies."

One of the kittens, which was bleeding when it was orphaned, passed away but the other two are said to be "thriving".

Find out how you can support the Sunshine Dog Centre here.

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