Cat 'Stealing' Kittens From Sister To Add to Own Litter Is So Heartwarming

The taking care of tiny helpless animals, we often forget that they are intelligent creatures in their own right, with their own instincts, relationships, and ways o doing things. Sometimes when we try to impose our own order on things, we can actually be making things more difficult for animals who know exactly what it is that they are doing—even if they can’t communicate it to us. Take this pair of mama cats who were separated to give birth to their kittens—but knew they were supposed to be mothering as a team.

In this video, a young orange tabby, Cheeto, who had given birth a few weeks early, would not leave her laboring sister Mellow alone. She kept sneaking into the room where Mellow had just given birth and “snatching” her kittens away from her to add to Cheeto's pile of babies.

Related: Cat Claims Foster Kitten As 'His Baby' and We're in Love

The cat’s owner, who posts on TikTok as Aysha Clever, could not figure out what was going on, and kept taking the newborn kittens away from Cheeto to return to Mellow. Originally, she may have thought that Cheeto’s mothering instincts had gone into overdrive, and the orange cat had somehow forgotten which kittens were her own and which one belonged to her sister.

But, it turns out that Aysha was the one in the wrong. For after observing the cats’ behavior, she made a shocking discovery. Mellow was not reacting negatively to Cheeto’s kidnapping. Indeed, the orange cat was even bathing Mellow every time she approached. (Allogrooming is a known bonding ritual between two cats who are very close to one another.)

So for once, the woman let Cheeto finish taking all of Mellow’s babies. And the strangest thing happened: Mellow got up, used the litter box, and got something to eat and drink. Cheeto wasn’t stealing the kittens. She was babysitting.

Tag Team Motherhood.

The behavior did not stop there. The next day, Cheeto returned the kittens to Mellow, along with her own cats, and took her own day off. Back and forth hey went, trading off caretaking duties and time off. The kittens grew and thrived, and the household marveled at how these two cats had developed their own method of daycare between them.

If only we were all so lucky!

“Seeing two living beings willing to be unselfish and put someone else first, I feel like sometimes we forget that, so seeing it even through the perspective of felines, it kind of melts your heart,” says Aysha.

In the end, the family opted to keep all of Cheeto’s and Mellow’s kittens, which makes for a pretty chaotic house full of cats, but with a bond like that, it was hard to resist.

Timeline for Kitten Development

Though Cheeto’s two kittens were born two weeks before Mellow’s three, the difference between them would only be obvious for a few weeks at most. Kittens are pretty helpless for the first week or two of life—unable to do much more than grope blindly about for their mother’s warm body and an open nipple.

Around two or three weeks they start to turn into fully-fledged kittens, able to walk and jump. By four weeks they are playing with each other and starting on solid food, and by six to seven weeks, their personalities emerge.

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