http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/ne...05-491485.html
Pit bull playing mama to abandoned kittens
Sage has a reputation as a really good mother, and that's no small accomplishment for a 9-year-old pit bull that's long neutered and never had puppies.
What's astonishing is that her new "babies" aren't puppies. They're five little kittens abandoned at birth and left to the elements before the brindle-colored Sage stretched out her paws to embrace them. They're all so close now that when Sage goes to work with her owner, the five kittens - three tabbies, one black and one gray - hop into their little box and go along.
Sage's owner, Laura Greene, said it seemed strange at first for the dog to take over as mother and protector of the kittens.
"I brought them home and opened their crate. Sage stuck her head in and I heard a lot of little hisses. The kittens didn't like her. But she went into the crate anyway and they just got used to her," Greene said.
Now Sage sticks like glue to her unlikely brood, said Greene, a resident of Tullytown who works in a Falls dog-grooming shop.
Sage is a little protective of her new-found family. On a recent morning, she was playing with and licking the kittens but every time someone came into the grooming shop, she would come to attention, check out the "intruder" and bark once or twice to make sure visitors knew she was on guard.
At home, "mom" and babies sleep together or, when in a playful mood, Sage lies down and lets the kittens climb on her body to snuggle or wrestle each other, Greene said.
Because they're so young, Greene still bottle-feeds the kittens several times a day and once during the night. When she gets up at night to warm the bottles, Sage follows her and stands in front of the microwave until it beeps.
The lucky felines were found May 10 in a boat in a New Jersey boat yard. The person that found them sat for a long time waiting for a mama cat to return because usually a mother cat won't leave her babies for long periods of time.
Once it was clear that there was no mama cat, the person put the then-3-week-old kittens in a box and brought them to Greene, who is a former veterinary assistant. Greene took the kittens home and, for Sage, it was love at first sight.
The dog's reaction to the kittens is all the more remarkable because she's known her own hard times. At 3 months old, Sage was dumped in front of a Reading veterinary office where Greene once worked. It was obvious that she had been abused and a further examination revealed that her right rear leg had been broken, Greene said.
No one thought that she would walk again, but after a pin was inserted into her leg and several months of therapy, Sage was able to "run like the wind," Greene said.
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