CANADA – Sitting in her living room with her dog and a newly black kitten she recently adopted, a Saskatoon woman couldn’t believe her eyes when all of a sudden her dog, Bella, began nursing the new kitten Eclipso.
“She wasn’t even that way with her own puppies,” Rachelle Lietz stated about Bella.
Just two weeks ago, Lietz drove to Manitou Beach, Sask., about 120 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon, to visit family. While there they spotted a kitten on the side of the road who had been abandoned. Without a second thought, Lietz took home the tiny, scrawny kitten on the spot to help it in any way she could.
Upon their return to Saskatoon, Eclipso met Lietz’s dog Bella, who just one short year ago had some complications when it came to nursing and taking care of her five-pup litter.
Rachelle Lietz with her dog Bella and new kitten Eclipso in Saskatoon. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
“They were all healthy, but she got sick a little while after and she couldn’t eat enough food to feed them, so then the grandma, Pandora —she lives with my parents— she started lactating and feeding the puppies,” Lietz explained to CBC News.
But on Sunday afternoon, Bella’s maternal instincts somehow kicked in and she surprised the entire family by letting Eclipso nuzzle in and start nursing.
“Bella just kind of sniffed at him and flipped over a bit and all of a sudden the kitten … latched on and Bella was just sitting there letting the kitten nurse and we said, ‘What’s going on?’”
Bella is nursing a newly adopted cat named Eclipso, something Bella didn’t do for her own puppies. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
“I think that motherly instinct will surpass any biological boundaries,” Lietz stated, adding Bella plays with Eclipso, something she didn’t do at all for her own pups.
“They were nipping at each other’s ears, and it was really interesting to see that she would go and check up on the kitten.”
Lietz stated the name Eclipso came from the kitten’s off-black shade of fur, which reminded Lietz of the color of the moon when it’s in eclipse.
But Eclipso’s future is still uncertain. Lietz said she’s allergic to cats and wants to find Eclipso a home, but it may take some time, especially now that Eclipso is nursing from Bella.
“Today she’s been nursing the kitten all afternoon. She’s barely stopped,” stated Lietz.