Sorry to bring the mood down but this actually made me sad. This dog looks exactly like my parents dog, Lily, who died two weeks ago. She was a great dog, a rescue they had for years and one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known.
Her and their cat (who died two weeks before her) were best frenemies since day one. They would “fight” for the dog bed. She would always let the cat take the bed from her, no matter how comfortable she was but the moment he was out she would be back in the bed. I miss them both.
It’s a comfort thing. The kitten is likely stressed being away from her mom in a new surrounding with new animals, so nursing is kitten’s way of establishing some normality for comfort and stress relief. Full grown adult cats who weren’t separated from their mother young and were fully weaned sometimes do it too to self-soothe.
We fostered a mother cat and her two 7wk old kittens. She had them 90% weaned by the time we got them all, but still would let them occasionally nurse for a min or two. Then at 8 weeks she cut them off completely and would smack, hiss and growl at them if they tried to latch on. She loved to cuddle with them, but if they went for her nips, her whole demeanor changed lol. Funny thing is, the 3 other male cats we have (ours, not fosters) were more than happy to let the kittens mock nurse on their bellies. It was pretty adorable. I have a few videos of them nursing on the boys that I can look for in the morning and share 😊
I had a male cat who did this with two kittens found in my backyard. The mother cat didn’t come back for a few days, so we brought the kittens in and he immediately took in the two kittens. They would attempt to suckle him for a few months and he was pretty chill about it.
every doggo do that they’re lying down and their head lifts up and they look up at everyone with their sad sad eyes and they look like they’re wondering “ h h ei wats going oon? Can Iiiiii participate?? Or can I sleeeps”
We had a rescue cat that had had several litters. We fixed her when she came to live with us. A few months later, we found a kitten that was about 7 weeks old. We couldn’t find a mom or the owner, so she came to live with us. This kitten started nursing often. We woke up one morning and discovered a huge mass on the cat. It literally appeared overnight and was probably 8 inches by 5 inches. Took her to the vet immediately and found out it was due to the nursing when she had no milk. I can’t remember what he said it was though. We stopped the nursing and it went away pretty fast.
