Isabella, a golden retriever at the Safari Zoological Park, east of Caney, Kan. nurses Wednesday, July 30, 2008, three white tiger cubs she adopted after they were abandoned by their mother at the park. The cubs were born on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Daily Reporter, Rob Morgan)
Isn’t this the most beautiful picture? I’ve been reading recently about animals who’ve adopted orphan babies of other species, and came across this touching case. Just looking at the expression in the eyes of this golden retriever mom makes me melt.
The mother tiger at the Kansas Zoo rejected the babies. Zookeepers found the cubs wandering around their enclosure, searching for their mother, but she ignored them.
Fortunately, Isabella had just weaned a litter of puppies. Zookeepers introduced the tiger cubs, and instinct took over.
Here is another beautiful surrogate mother story. This may be a c-a-t but still, this is amazing footage from National Geographic.
That’s sweet. I recently wanted to do a story about one mommy dog taking over another’s litter, when the second dog died from complications after the pups were born. If the match hadn’t happened quickly, the pups would have died. The owner (a veterinarian) of the dog that died agreed to be interviewed, but the owners of the other dog did not, so I never got to do the story.