A nursery dog is stepping in to help nurse five cheetah cubs after their mother passed away over the weekend.
Willow, a 5-year-old cheetah, was lethargic and had no appetite following the C-section birth of her premature cubs. Zoo staff thought she would make a full recovery, according to a press release from spokewoman Michelle Curley.
“Cheetahs are a fragile species and this difficult birth proved to be too much for her to pull through. Without the C-section, we likely would have lost both the mom and the cubs,” Thane Maynard, Director of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, said in a press release. “Willow was able to contribute to the survival of her species by producing five cheetah cubs.”
The cubs have been bottle-fed by staff since their birth on March 8.
Now, the zoo has employed the expertise of another baby animal whisperer — an Australian Shepherd dog named Blakely.
And that’s just what you’ll get here on Bottlegate. Sometimes you’ll get almost 1,000 words on why being a Cleveland sports fan is exhausting. Sometimes you’ll get a blog on Jim Harbaugh being destroyed on Twitter.
But today you’re getting video of a dog nursing some baby cheetahs. The cuteness levels were so high I couldn’t not post it. Besides, talking about what LeBron says, tweets, or who he unfollows is getting old.