Three weeks ago, Brittany Callan wasn’t planning on adding more animals to her life. Then she heard meowing coming from the back of her aunt’s garage.
There, in the grass, was a newborn kitten. Callan placed the little animal on a soft blanket in the shade nearby, hoping the mom would return. But hours later, the kitten was still alone. She knew the little animal wouldn’t make it through the night, so she decided to take the little blind baby home.
Callan’s Doberman pinscher, Ruby, had just had puppies, and she hoped that the dog’s mothering instincts would kick in when she saw the helpless kitten.
“We’ve had baby bunnies and guinea pigs, and she just licks them like she’s their mom,” Callan told The Dodo. “She was carrying around the baby bunnies in her mouth and hiding them in the couch like they were hers — she even tried to nurse them when she was younger.”
Ruby and the kitten couldn’t look more different, but none of that mattered when they met. Callan held the kitten out to her dog, and Ruby immediately accepted the new baby into her pack.
“She just started cleaning it and nudging it out of my hand,” Callan said. “Then I just opened up the kitten’s mouth and put it on Ruby’s smallest nipple, and it started eating right away. Ruby looked at it and laid her head down.”
Rosie’s puppies were already three times her size, but that didn’t stop the kitten from crawling in to snuggle with her dog brothers and sisters.
And her new mom always makes sure the kitten is clean and safe. “She looks like the scruffiest kitten ever because she’s always wet from Ruby licking her or carrying her around in her mouth,” Callan said. “Her back end is either sopping wet or matted down from Ruby cleaning her so much.”
Ruby is now weaning her puppies, but refuses to be separated from her tiniest baby for more than a few minutes.
“She’s just obsessed with this kitten,” Callan said. “She doesn’t want to be outside — she’ll go to every door and whine and scratch until you let her in, and then she’ll just pick up the kitten and carry it around in her mouth.”
Under Rosie’s care, the little orphaned kitten is thriving, and when she’s old enough, she will travel to her forever home with Callan’s cousin.
But for now, the only mom the kitten needs is Ruby. It just goes to show when it comes to family, size doesn’t matter — it’s the love that counts.
