Cat adopts baby squirrels

BAKHCHISARAY, CRIMEA (CBS) - A named Pusha, living in a miniature park in southern Crimean peninsula, proved that a mother’s love knows no bounds by adopting four baby squirrels.

Several weeks ago Pusha was introduced to the orphaned baby squirrels found by local residents in the town of Bakhchisaray, but it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.

“One day our visitors brought them [baby squirrels] to us in a box,” Olga Fadeeva, keeper at Miniature Park of Bakhchisaray, said. “They were about four weeks old, their eyes were already open a little. We had a cat who had had kittens. We decided to try to give them to her, and she accepted them as if they were her own.”

Fadeeva said that it took some time for the animals to get used to one another, as in the beginning the baby squirrels were afraid of their new mother.

“The cat was weirded out at first as the squirrels tried to get out of the box, climb onto her, reach into her mouth and so on,” Fadeeva said. “But later she accepted her new children and they found a common language. Now they live as a happy family, kittens and baby squirrels.”

Looking after four squirrels and four kittens can be quite a burden for Pusha, who cannot produce enough milk to feed all her children. But no one will go hungry, as Fadeeva and her colleagues look after those who are late to the meal by feeding goat’s milk to them in tiny bottles.

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