Oh, our fluffy friends seem to have amassed a reputation that doesn’t even begin to explain how adorable, appreciative, and affectionate they are. More often than not, cats aren’t portrayed as the snuggle bugs we know they are. Instead, they’re portrayed as standoffish, sedate, and even aggressive toward anyone who doesn’t respect them.
On one hand, cats are reproached because they have boundaries, they won’t allow you to snuggle with them without consent, and they won’t do PDA (for the most part).
On the other, puppers are praised because they’re friendly, snuggly, and a ride-or-die type of friend (even though they’re that way with pretty much anyone who uses high-pitched noises and tells them they’re a good boy).
What are we trying to get to? Puppers are great, we adore puppers! But, we’re here to attempt to change everyone’s opinion on cats by bringing you refreshing, heart-warming stories of cats changing the world one day at a time.
That’s why we’d like you to meet Musya, a Russian cat who became a surrogate to eight hedgehogs and saved them from unavoidable death. When the newborn, porcupine-like mammals suffered the loss of their mother due to a lawn-mowing accident, everyone thought they weren’t going to survive.
Not only were the eight of them too little to navigate the world without a mother, but they were too young to feed on anything other than their mother’s milk.
Not only that, but they were completely alone considering the fact they weren’t anyone’s pets and they weren’t used to humans. Now, that’s when an unexpected twist happened.
When everyone started thinking that the weak, vulnerable hedgehogs weren’t going to make it, a few neighbors gathered around them, collected them, and took them to the Sadgorod zoo, hoping that the zoo would have a “spare” hedgehog mother that would nurse the babies back to health.
While the zoo did agree to take the hedgehogs and try to nurse them back to health, the zookeepers didn’t have any grown-up hedgehogs.
On one hand, even though they weren’t sure whether the tiny hoglets would want to fight to survive, the zookeepers did pretty much everything they could to feed them, keep them warm, and take care of them.
On the other, the babies continued to refuse milk from a syringe, a bottle, and a saucer for two days. At night, the babies were offered a heating pad to aid them with digestion. However, that didn’t do much for them because they continued not eating, not sleeping, and not doing anything to survive.
That is when Musya stepped up and offered to become a surrogate for these strange, odd-behaving kittens. Musya was already an experienced surrogate mother considering that she’d recently finished nursing an entire litter of foster kittens.
(Source: Dailymail)
Musya was known as the zoo’s surrogate because she couldn’t bare to see anyone’s babies orphaned, unfed, and unappreciated. So, Musya did what Musya needed to do – she turned to hungry orphans and offered them a mother’s milk, warmth, and affection.
Orphans took to Musya pretty much right off the bat because they were drawn to her warmth and the scent of milk that was coming from her.
Musya continued feeding them, caring for them, and comforting them at night for days to come. Musya made sure the hedgehogs had everything they needed to grow happy and healthy, and she continued checking up on the even when they started eating on their own.
And, to everyone’s excitement, the hungry hoglets didn’t take too much time before they started searching for food other than Musya’s milk.
Actually, as the days went by, the hoglets became stronger and stronger and swiftly managed to start feeding from bowls and basins that the keepers would leave out for them.
Musya’s one of our feline friends that sheds light on how affectionate, appreciative, and warm-hearted cats can be (when they want to, of course).
According to the zoo keepers, Musya contentedly continued nursing orphaned kittens and other orphaned animals because there had been a surge of hedgehogs around the area of eastern Russia over the course of the year.
And, she wasn’t the only Russian fluffer extending her nursing services to orphaned hedgehogs. According to the Sagorod zoo, a cat named Sonya nursed four hoglets alongside her own kittens, too.
What happens to these hoglets when they’re nursed back to health? More often than not, when hedgehogs are strong enough to take care of themselves, they’re released back to the wilderness where they belong.
Oftentimes, the hedgehogs come back to check up on the surrogate mother and the zookeepers (which makes everyone let out a collective “Aww!” because that’s the most adorable, appreciative moment ever)!
Whether or not these hedgehogs come back to greet Musya and check how she’s doing, we’re happy that Musya nursed them back to health and offered them another chance at life.
