Dachshund lets kitten nurse

VICTORIA, Texas, July 10 (UPI) -- A Victoria, Texas, woman says her long-haired dachshund has been allowing a stray kitten she brought into her home to nurse.

Eunice Collins said Tahoe, a kitten she named after finding it under the hood of her Chevy Tahoe, has been drinking milk from Lillie, a 3-year-old longhaired dachshund that the kitten seems to believe is its mother, the Victoria Advocate reported Tuesday.

"Tahoe was tiny, way too little to be away from home," Collins said. "I took him in and kept him in my bedroom to keep him away from my other animals."

"I woke up four days later and he was nursing on Lillie," she said. "I couldn't believe it."

Dr. John Beck, a local veterinarian, said a kitten being adopted by a dog is a rare occurrence.

"That's not going to happen very often," he said. "The kitten got lucky, basically" that it found a dog with strong maternal instincts.

"She's a good dog," Beck, the veterinarian said. "Having Tahoe around induced a false pregnancy, a nursing response. It made the hormones needed to produce milk. Now, I'm sure the cat obviously had it in her mind the dog was her mother."