The Rock Island County Animal Care and Control Center is sharing a remarkable story about a momma who lost her kittens, and is now nursing orphans. A stray black cat with white whiskers is nursing two blonde puppies who are just days old, as well as an abandoned black kitten. The shelter in Moline says it's extremely rare for cats to nurse animals other than their own, and this is a first for them.

Laurel Harmening says the puppies arrived four or five days ago, "came in and we didn't have a nursing mom but we had a nursing cat that we had just given a baby to, and we put them in on a chance she would take them and she's been a great mom."

The unwanted puppies were dropped off at the Moline Fire Department. They'll nurse a little longer and then be taken to a foster home, where a volunteer will bottle feed them. Harmening says it's important for the puppies to cuddle and be nurtured while nursing, even with a cat and even if only for a few days. They will come back to the shelter and be put up for adoption when they are about eight weeks old.

They'll have plenty of company when they return. In the last six weeks, the shelter has received about 800 unwanted pets and strays. Harmening encourages people who have lost a pet, to check to see if it wound up at the shelter.