Cookie the cat lost her babies. Then she accepted Crumb the kitten ‘as her own’

Cookie the cat lost her babies — then she accepted Crumb the kitten “as her own.”

“She took right up with the kitten,” Heart of the Foothills Animal Rescue of North Carolina told McClatchy News in an email. “It was a very emotional ordeal. We were so ecstatic that Cookie took the baby in as her own.”

But those “touching” moments were surrounded by hardship. Cookie arrived at the Rutherford County rescue pregnant after she was spotted at an RV park, according to the email and social media posts from the animal organization.

A few weeks after Cookie’s March 23 arrival, she delivered three stillborn kittens.

“Cookie would have died had she still been living outside on her own, they had to physically pull all three babies out to save her life,” Heart of the Foothills wrote April 11 in a Facebook post.

Then a few days after the “traumatic” delivery, the rescue welcomed 2-week-old kitten Crumb. A man reportedly took in her mom as a stray before she gave birth, then escaped.

“He was doing the best he could by trying to bottle feed the kitten but he was terrified the kitten was going to die,” the rescue wrote.

So Cookie’s foster mom introduced her to Crumb, and the little one began “nursing non stop,” heartwarming photos show. But more bad news was in store.

“After the kitten started nursing, it stimulated contractions and (Cookie) had another dead baby and then ... another dead baby,” the rescue wrote in its April 15 email, adding that Cookie later got an X-ray confirming she’s not expecting any more kittens.

Though Cookie will go up for adoption, Crumb may go back home with the man who brought her to the rescue. The organization is based in Rutherfordton, a roughly 55-mile drive southeast from the popular mountain town of Asheville.

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