ANIMALS

Compassionate Dog Mom Takes in Abandoned Kitten at Shelter After Desperate Request to Meet the Feline

According to the Jackson County Animal Shelter, the kitten’s bond with Kela the dog is “He is dependent on her; she alone is providing all his food/nourishment through nursing,”

Image source: Jackson County Animal Shelter

Thanks to a caring dog, an abandoned kitten has found a surrogate mother once more.

According to Lydia Sattler, the animal services director at the Jackson Country Animal Shelter, Kela, who was described as “very pregnant,” was relocated from another shelter in Michigan to the Jackson Country Animal Shelter in March. The move was made because the shelter possessed better resources to provide proper care for both the dog mother and her puppies, as stated to PEOPLE magazine.

Firstly, the Jackson Country Animal Shelter had intended to find a foster home for Kela to give birth. However, upon her arrival at the shelter, the pregnant dog exhibited extreme fear and refused to allow anyone to approach her, as disclosed by Sattler.

“We moved her into our office spaces to try and make her more comfortable and let her get to know us. She became very happy hanging out with us all day,” the director says.

At the Jackson Country Animal Shelter, Kela gave birth to a litter of ten robust puppies on March 31. A few days following this joyful event, a compassionate individual discovered an abandoned male kitten outside and promptly brought it to the shelter. Upon the kitten’s arrival, shelter staff took the tiny feline to their offices for bottle feeding and a veterinary examination.

Image source: Jackson County Animal Shelter

Kela swiftly detected the presence of a newcomer in the shelter offices.

“While he was waiting for his bottle to be warmed up, the kitten was crying in his box. Kela heard the kitten and was scratching at the door to get in that room,” Sattler explains.

Initially, the shelter staff were puzzled by Kela’s behavior and couldn’t discern her intentions. However, the mystery was swiftly unraveled when they opened the door to the room where the abandoned kitten was being held.

“I opened the door to ask her what was wrong, and she immediately ran past me to the kitten. She stuck her head right in the box. I went and picked up the kitten, not knowing what Kela was doing. She tried to take him out of my hand and would not take her eyes off him. She also would not leave the kitten to go back to her puppies,” Sattler says.

In order to alleviate Kela’s anxiety, the animal services director made the decision to introduce the kitten to Kela’s puppies, creating a calming environment for the dog.

“As soon as the kitten was added to the puppy pile, she instantly laid down and started cleaning him,” Sattler says of Kela.

“Kela was finally content to stay with her puppies again once the kitten was in there with them. We tried to take him out to give him a bottle, and Kela again would not leave his side,” she adds.

Ever since becoming a part of Kela’s litter on April 3, the kitten, who is yet to be named, has been thriving and progressing positively.

“He is so content to be cleaned, warm, and snuggled. We haven’t heard him cry since!” Sattler says of the kitten’s time with Kela.

In addition to grooming the kitten, Kela has taken on the role of nursing the young feline, fully embracing him as a member of her pack. Remarkably, Kela’s puppies have warmly accepted the newcomer, displaying no signs of objection to the new addition.

Image source: Jackson County Animal Shelter

“They don’t have their eyes open yet, so they will be surprised to see he looks a little different. I wonder if they will notice! They all snuggle together and nurse side by side! I think it is fair to say the whole litter will be great with cats when they are ready for adoption,” Sattler says.

The kitten, who was approximately ten days old upon arrival at the shelter, will remain under Kela’s care until he reaches the weaning stage.

“He is dependent on her; she alone is providing all his food/nourishment through nursing as well as cleaning up after him,” the Jackson Country Animal Shelter director adds.

Source: People

ANIMALS

Amazing Video of Unseen Ocean Creatures in the Ningaloo Canyons

The Schmidt Ocean Institute recently explored the Ningaloo Canyons on the western coast of Australia using a robotic underwater vehicle called the ROV Sebastian. Check out the amazing video of what they discovered in the deep parts of the Indian Ocean.

More info: Youtube

ANIMALS

These Pics Are Art and the Artists Are Insects

Flying insects move so quickly that they are hard to follow, but new technology and some smart ideas have helped Spanish photographer Xavi Bou do just that. After spending 10 years focusing on birds in flight for his Ornithographies project, he turned his attention to insects.

For Entomographies, he uses high-speed video footage taken by Adrian Smith, an insect expert at North Carolina State University, to study and record how insects move. Bou then picks multiple frames and combines them into single images that show the fast movements of one or more insects through space and time.

With Smith’s help, Bou has captured the aerial tricks of wasps, the jumps of leafhoppers, and the fluttering of butterflies in amazing detail. He hopes that by doing this, he can make people more aware of the decline in important insect populations around the world.

1. Zebra longwing

This butterfly, which is common in many areas of the Americas, really fits its name. It can fly very high with just a few flaps of its large wings.