Two orphaned puppies found a new family with a fierce feline and her kitten at a Texas shelter.
On Monday, July 8, the Wilbarger Humane Society in Vernon, Texas, posted a video on Facebook detailing a "special little story" that starts "sad" but has an "amazing" middle and an ending that "hasn't been written yet."
In the video, shelter employee Suzie Streit shares that about two months ago, the Wilbarger Humane Society received a pregnant stray dog who gave birth to two male puppies — named Yin and Yang — about three weeks ago.
According to Streit, the mother dog appeared to be doing fine after the birth, cleaning and feeding her puppies. However, two days after the birth, Streit said the mother dog died. The shelter is "still not 100% sure what happened" regarding the dog's death.
After the dog's death, Wilbarger Humane Society employees started bottle-feeding the two days old puppies that mom had left behind,
As the staff figured out what to do with the puppies to give them "the best chance possible" of survival, a twist of fate happened. According to the humane society, shortly after the mother dog's death, local animal control officers brought an 8-month-old mother cat named Julie Newmar to the shelter with her one-week-old kitten, Eartha Kitt.
The shelter staff discussed the situation and decided to see whether the mother cat would take in the pups alongside her kitten and nurse them as her own.
"... Having a real mom would give these puppies a better chance at survival than bottle feeding would ever do," Streit said in the social media video.
In an interview with KFDX-TV, she added, "Cats are really good about when you can put somebody else's babies on them, and t -
hey'll take other cat babies all the time. But we thought we'd try with the dogs."
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The idea appears to have worked because Julie Newmar accepted the puppies into her furry family. In Wilbarger Humane Society's video, Julie Newmar the cat watches over her kitten and "two foster sons," who are cuddling in a shelter kennel together.
Despite not liking other dogs she's met, Julie Newmar has been "a really, really good mommy" to her foster puppies, Streit told KFDX-TV. "And, she has done a really excellent job of adapting to what she needed to adapt to keep them going."
Streit noted that the humane society has paired mother cats with other kittens needing a surrogate parent but "never tried it with dogs before." Julie Newmar was the "lucky little girl" the shelter needed to ensure orphaned puppies Yin and Yang received a mother's love.
In a Tuesday, July 9 update, the shelter shared a photo of Julie Newmar, her kitten, and her two puppy sons cozied up together.
Thanks to Julie Newmar, Streit told KFDX-TV that the puppies have "the rest of their lives ahead of them."
"As long as they stay happy and healthy, which so far they have, then they've got the rest of their lives to have excellent stories themselves," Streit told the outlet.
According to the Wilbarger Humane Society, Julie Newmar and her kids are not yet available for adoption. To donate to the adorable family's care, visit the shelter's website.
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