When you’re expecting a baby, it’s always nice to have a friend who is also pregnant to share the experience — even if they’re not actually a human.
Two years ago, a pregnant woman took in a pregnant cat, and the two moms-to-be shared a bond — eventually giving birth at the same time!
Lauren Maners loves animals, and often volunteers to foster shelter animals in need of love. But when she was pregnant last year, she decided to take a break from caring for pets, instead focusing on her baby.
But fate had other plans. Months into her pregnancy, Lauren and her husband Kainan found a stray cat that they couldn’t turn away.
They found the stray, a white female cat they named Dove, on the side of the road, “extremely skinny and injured,” Lauren told Bored Panda.
Dove had reportedly been eating out of dumpsters. And the mom-to-be realized that the cat was also pregnant. Unable to find Dove’s owner or secure a place in a no-kill shelter, Lauren knew she couldn’t turn away a fellow expectant mother, and took her in.
“I couldn’t just leave her knowing that she was going to have to take care of her babies in the wild,” Lauren said.
“I knew that she was in bad shape and also felt a sort of connection to her due to us both being very pregnant,” she told The Dodo. “I managed to catch her by luring her up to me with our leftover food and wrapping her in my jacket, and we brought her to the vet.”
Lauren committed to fostering Dove and her future litter of kittens, and the former stray quickly made herself at home.
“She would follow me around everywhere I went, and loved sitting outside with me in the mornings in our fenced-in area and letting me rub her belly while we ate breakfast together,” Lauren said.
And in return for taking good care of the cat, Lauren got a sweet companion with whom she could share a real motherly connection. The two new friends were going through the same experience together, and Lauren joked on social media that they formed an exclusive “Pregnant Girls Club.”
Update : we’ve formed our own Pregnant Girls Club. It’s very exclusive. pic.twitter.com/w93ECUSwS9
— Lauren Maners (@mamamaners) April 20, 2020
“I and Dove had an instant bond,” she told Bored Panda. “It was like she also knew that I was pregnant and that I was a friend. She was not instantly trusting of my husband the way she was of me.”
Weeks went by, and soon both pregnant ladies were preparing to give birth — and it turned out their due dates were very close.
Finally, the day came, and Lauren gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Kylie.
And after returning from the hospital, she discovered even more good news — and an amazing coincidence: Dove had also given birth!
While she’s not sure exactly what time Dove had her six kittens, she suspects the cat’s birth aligned pretty closely with her own: “They were very possibly born at the same time,” she told The Dodo.
Lauren continued to foster the cat family while caring for her newborn baby, and she continued to share a bond with Dove on their motherhood journey. She even says that baby Kylie started to bond with the kittens.
After months of fostering, it became time to find home for all the cats. Lauren helped all the kittens get adopted into good homes, and she told The Dodo that Dove was taken in by a friend of hers, so she can still keep in touch.
While caring for this pregnant cat during her pregnancy was an amazing experience, Lauren also emphasized that it isn’t something you should try to emulate: it’s important to spay and neuter your cats to help reduce the stray cat population.
What an adorable story. Thank you to Lauren for taking such good care of these cats and looking out for a fellow mom. It goes to show the real unexpected bonds that can form between humans and animals.
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