Dachshund Adopts Third Litter of Kittens

By Kelli Bender Apr 19th 2012

Duchess the Dachshund may be short in stature, but she is big on love. According to The (Monroe, La.) News-Star, Duchess has adopted three litters of kittens in less than a year. Duchess's owner Shelia Huston said the dog just seems to gravitate towards parenting the feline fuzzballs.

Duchess started caring for her most recent group of kittens after Huston's daughter's cat was killed by a car, leaving behind an orphaned litter of four. Shortly after the accident, Katie, Huston's daughter, brought the kittens to Duchess. The dog immediately started licking the four needy felines, and by the next morning was producing milk for them.

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Huston said that Duchess's four surrogate kids have all been adopted into loving homes, but don't worry about Duchess suffering from empty nest syndrome. The motherly doggie is now caring for another kitten that Huston discovered abandoned at a rental property.

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For Duchess, a career as a mother just seems to be in the cards. Huston said that when they rescued the dog from a local kennel, she had been bred so many times that she was close to death. Because of everything she had been through, Huston decided not to let the dog give birth again. But Duchess found a new way to care for furry children.

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Duchess's babysitting gig all started when Katie's aforementioned cat had her first litter of kittens while the dog was staying over. Katie agreed to look after Duchess while Huston was on vacation, but soon found it more problematic than she expected. Huston said that during her trip she received several calls from Katie about Duchess stealing the kittens from their mother so she could care for them instead.

Duchess appears to be a serial offender when it comes to cat-napping. Huston said that her dog tried taking and tending to her cat's kittens as well. While this attraction to other animals' babies is rare, veterinarians say that it is not "too unusual" for some dogs to adopt another animal's children as their own. Vets also explained that Duchess's ability to produce milk so quickly for hungry kittens is just a mix of nature and motherly instinct at work.

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Regardless of how unconventional Duchess' parenting techniques are, they have certainly left their mark on her adopted children. Huston said that she recently gave one of her kittens to a friend with a dog and that the little feline refuses to leave the pooch's side. Huston sees this as a sign of her dog's superb parenting skills.