When This Cat Gave Birth To Seven Kittens, You Won't Believe What The Family Dog Did With Them

When this cat gave birth to seven kittens, the family dog's animal instincts took over. Soon after the kittens were born in early 2013, one of the dogs in the Louisiana household had shown a keen interest in the new arrivals. The persistent canine tried to get at the litter with every chance he got, in fact, until one day his owner decided to just let him investigate. As the mutt's lowered muzzle closed in on the babies, though, everyone held their breath. What would the dog do next? The determined dog was called Archer, and he belongs to Regina, a social media user who lives in southern Louisiana. And in 2012, the keen cartoonist opened an Imgur account, primarily to show off her artwork, where she is known by the screen name Outh. About a year after joining the image-sharing community, however, Outh uploaded a photo story to Imgur. And that tale began with two cats. But in fact, those animals didn't even belong to Outh. She had merely agreed to act as a foster mom after their owner had joined the U.S. Navy. Outh had made an oath to her friends that she would look after the pair while the human mom was away sailing the seven seas. Subsequently, the feline duo, Gail and Tara, were welcomed into Outh's home and were even given their own room to boot. Well, kind of. The creative woman had originally offered to put the cats up in her sewing room, but as the nature is of these things, the territorial cats took over the space and claimed it as their own. Thus, the room became a home away from home for Gail and Tara. About two weeks after the cats' arrival, however, Outh was out and about taking care of business when she got a worrying message from home. In particular, she received a text from a roommate who had grown concerned about one of the cats. Apparently, Tara seemed bloated. So, Outh returned to the house to see for herself. She would later write on Imgur, Tara did seem bloated, but since she was purring and not in pain, I put off taking her to the vet. The Imgur user went on to jokingly explain, I thought maybe she was just a fat cat. Nevertheless, Outh began to keep a closer eye on the animal around the house. But while there were no troubling developments with Tara in the short term, it was a different story the following week. It started as Outh was woken up by some unexpected noise emanating from the sewing room. And although the mewing wasn't an unusual sound in itself for a cat to make, Gail and Tara were usually placid and mute. So, Outh decided she had to investigate. When she opened the door to the room, though, she only found the pair chilling out and quiet. Unnervingly, however, the mewing sound continued. A confused Outh then began to think that somehow another feline had got itself stuck in the wall cavity. And it turned out that Outh was right. A feline was stuck. In fact, there were two. But much to her great surprise, Outh found them stuck under Tara. The cat's swollen appearance had been due to the fact that she was heavily pregnant. The new mom had delivered two kittens in the night. But Tara wasn't finished yet. Indeed, as the day progressed, Tara went on to give birth to five more babies, bringing the litter total up to a lucky seven. And the new mom was totally overjoyed with her kitties, as Outh later described on Imgur. Mama cat made the loudest purrs while she was nursing them. She wrote, adding, she'd even knead at the air. She was so happy. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Outh subsequently did some online research into looking after kittens. But Tara mostly had it covered. Indeed, the only thing that Tara was unable to do was name her kittens. So Outh took the liberty. Two of the litter were male and ginger, so she named them Fred and George, possibly after the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter series. The rest of the brood were gray. There were two males, Tesla and Schrodinger, and three females, Duchess, Honey Boo Boo, and Minerva. Another Potter reference? And at first, the new feline family did not have any trouble from the household's dogs, Archer and Zoe, who ignored them for the most part. However, as time went on, Archer, a Dachshund mix, began to show an inordinate interest in the litter. This was a worry to Outh. Why did Archer seem so enthusiastic to get at the kittens all of a sudden? So dogged was Archer, in fact, that his owner began to get curious. Eventually then, Outh decided, with her keeping a firm grip on the situation, to see what the dog would do. I eventually let him get near the kittens under close supervision, she later wrote on Imgur. Much to her followers' relief, though, the outcome was not carnage. It couldn't have been more the contrary. He just licked them all over, Outh revealed, adding, Mama did not mind him at all. Indeed, Archer would become much like a father to the kittens. What's more, as time went on, Tara grew so comfortable with the kittens' adopted doggy daddy that she would leave them unsupervised. And understandably, the cat mom actually seemed grateful from the break from her beloved, but no doubt overwhelming, brood. Meanwhile, daddy Archer took his responsibilities by the scruff of the neck, literally. He transported the feline furballs with him everywhere, holding them in his mouth like they were his own puppies. My dog would straight up kidnap the kittens and drag them out into the room, Outh wrote on Imgur one day. I was watching TV and I looked down and he had carried two out to But this behavior was something Outh swiftly got used to, and it wasn't just reserved for downstairs either. He actually brought one into my bed, Outh would go on to reveal. She also realized that now that the household had even more feline roomies, she had some work to do. In particular, the cat contingent really needed some creature comforts to feel properly at home in her former sewing room. Consequently, Outh added some toys and accessories to the kitty crib, including a cat tower made from a box spring. But it wasn't all fun and games with the furbabies. These seven new arrivals also required a lot of work day to day. I quickly learned to appreciate the term herding cats, Outh observed on Imgur. Every morning I'd have to return them all to their room before I went to work. And life wasn't all plain sailing for the kittens either, especially not for the grey female called Honey Boo Boo. As a consequence of some unspecified complication, the little cat suffered from eye trouble. Honey Boo Boo ended up needing surgery, in fact, and sadly it was too late to save the eye. Looking on the bright side, however, the kitten did survive. She even received a humorous and affectionate name change into the bargain. I call her Honey Peekaboo Boo now, Outh told Imgur. And from the pictures she posted on her account, it looks like all the tiny cats had a wonderful kittenhood. Yet, although Outh didn't go on to specify exactly what happened to the kittens, it's implied that they found new homes. In one caption, for instance, Outh described one of the litterers being the first to relocate to a new home, hinting that the others did too. As for the rest of the animals in the house, we can only speculate. Hopefully then the kittens have found loving forever homes. Maybe Outh even kept one or more of the litter. It would be a shame if that kitted out cat room went to waste after all. Perhaps the Imgur user will update us one day.