Vernon, Texas — A heartwarming tale of interspecies adoption unfolded at the Wilbarger Humane Society after a stray dog’s tragic death left her newborn puppies in need of a mother—and an unlikely feline hero stepped in.
Two months ago, a pregnant stray arrived at the shelter and gave birth to two male puppies, Yin and Yang. Though the mother initially cared for her litter, she died just two days later, leaving staff scrambling to bottle-feed the fragile newborns.
Then fate intervened.
Shortly after the puppies were orphaned, animal control brought in an 8-month-old cat named Julie Newmar and her one-week-old kitten, Eartha Kitt. Shelter staff wondered: Would the young feline accept the puppies as her own?
“Having a real mom would give these puppies a better chance at survival than bottle-feeding ever could,” Suzie Streit, a shelter employee, explained in a Facebook video.
The experiment worked. Julie Newmar, despite her usual aversion to dogs, embraced Yin and Yang, nursing and cuddling them alongside her biological kitten.
“She’s been a really, really good mommy,” Streit told KFDX-TV. “She adapted perfectly to keep them going.”
While the shelter has paired surrogate cats with orphaned kittens before, this marked their first successful feline-canine adoption.The blended family curled up together, thriving under Julie Newmar’s care.
Though not yet available for adoption, the puppies now have “the rest of their lives ahead of them,” Streit said. Donations for their care can be made through the Wilbarger Humane Society’s website.
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