Cats and birds do not get along. These tiny, winged creatures often end up as dinner if caught by a house cat. When farmers noticed that a cat had stolen away their ducklings, they feared that she would gobble them up. Instead, she adopted them.
Ronan and Emma live together in Clara, Ireland. They each have their own day jobs, but they enjoy spending their free time tending to their farm. Recently, the couple decided to add some ducks to their farm. They wanted to raise the ducklings themselves, so they purchased a group of fertilized eggs.
They set the eggs up in the barn and waited for them to hatch. When they finally did, however, they immediately disappeared. Ronan and Emma couldn’t find the ducklings anywhere – so they began to fear the worst had happened. Then they discovered the thief who had taken their ducks.
“Within seconds of [their birth], a cat jumped down from a pigeon hole within the shed over there,” Ronan shared with LFC 1892. “I just presumed that the cat had swallowed up the ducklings.”
But that wasn’t the case just yet. Six hours after the ducklings hatched, the couple found them – with the cat. She held one of the newborn creatures in her mouth. Ronan and Emma were horrified. “We were thinking ‘Oh no!,'” Ronan recalled. “We were only after getting them back, and now she’s going to eat them right in front of us.”
The worried farmers picked up the cat, who was still holding the duckling in her mouth. Then Emma, who works as a midwife, noticed that the cat was not harming the baby duck. In fact, she was nurturing it.
They put the cat back down, and something amazing happened. The ducklings ran up to her and began to suckle. Using her paw, the cat pulled the ducklings close. The couple couldn’t believe their eyes. They didn’t understand why the cat hadn’t eaten these newborns.
It turns out that the cat, who is now named Della, had just given birth to three kittens. According to LFC 1892, “It was a very lucky coincidence for the ducklings the cat found them just after giving birth herself. For a narrow window of a couple of hours, mothering hormones were coursing through her body, causing her to love and nurture any small, warm, furry creature she found next to her.”
The farmers were worried that this bond wouldn’t last and that the cat would return to her predatory instincts, but the love shared between these animals was strong enough to overcome their natural habits. The ducklings are all grown up now, but they still spend their time following their adoptive mother around.
This sweet story shows how love can overcome instinctual patterns. Della and her ducklings will be wandering together for many years to come.
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