Cat at shelter nursing baby chihuahua after mom dies

by Ryan O'Donnell / 3TV
October 1, 2009

PHOENIX - A baby Chihuahua was left without a mother and in order to survive now has to nurse off a cat.

Halo Animal Rescue takes in dogs and cats of all ages but one that came in recently shocked everybody who works there.

In her 15 years of saving animals Heather Allen says she has never seen something like this before. She says, "It's pretty comical, even for us who have been around forever, we just keep looking with amazement."
A week ago Allen was left with quite the life-saving challenge. He was a 1-hour-old Chihuahua that lost its mom while giving birth. Heather tells 3TV, "I called Animal Control and I said ‘What do you have for me that's nursing’?"
The best Animal Control had was a black cat with four babies roughly the same size as the baby Chihuahua.

Heather says, "I asked a couple of vets and one was like, ‘Oh, I don't know about that’ and the other one was like, ‘Oh I think that's ok"

Knowing that without a mom the baby Chihuahua did not have long to live, Heather introduced the two. She says, "I just kind of just stuck the puppy in with the rest and hoped the mom wouldn't notice much and she thought that was fine."

Seven days later the baby Chihuahua, now named Liam, is still alive. Heather says, "She's doing great, I don't know if she'll be litter-trained when she's done, but she's doing really well, she's nursing and seems to be growing and doing great."

Liam may have gained a couple of extra lives now that she is nursing from a cat but Heather says she is not free and clear yet.

She is very young and things could still turn for the worse. "I hold my breath every morning and look in there and she's doing fantastic." She adds, "We're just really happy that she's willing to be such a good mom.

Liam and the mother cat are both up for adoption. Of course this will not be able to happen for a few weeks until the nursing is over and the Chihuahua is old enough to be adopted so if you are interested, you just have to be patient.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Cat-at-shelter-nursing-baby-chihuahua-after-mom-dies--63209552.html

(Submitted by Sally Tully-Figueroa)