Dr. Kimberlee Young of the Garden State Animal Hospital holds one of the Shih-Tzu puppies that she brought into the world via C-section, puppies that have been nursed by a show cat named Yentyl:

NORTH BERGEN, NJ - The phones have been ringing off the hook at the Garden State Animal Hospital ever since The Jersey Journal reported on the four orphaned shih tzu-mix puppies with a cat for a mother.

But, you can stop calling. The four 9-week-old puppies were adopted over the weekend by families in Guttenberg, Bayonne and Ridgefield, though they won't be able to leave for another three weeks. "We need to slowly wean them off mom," said hospital veterinarian Dr. Kimberlee Young.

"Yentyl (the cat) gets time away from the puppies in the day and we put them back together at night."

The puppies were born to a stray dog that was mortally injured when it was hit by a car. A passerby took the dog to the hospital, where the staff was able to save the puppies - two weeks premature - via caesarian section.

Hospital staff tried to feed the puppies with bottles, but they weren't able to nurse, Young said. So she took the puppies to her home in Old Bridge, where she fed them through tubes inserted into their bellies.

Three weeks later, Young's cat - a 5-year-old retired show cat named Yentyl - delivered a stillborn kitten. Two days later, she still seemed depressed and restless, Young said. "She would always walk around looking for something to take care of," she said. "I figured she'd be happy for at least a few minutes if I gave her a puppy."

Yentyl snuggled up with the puppy and began nursing it right away. "After I saw that, I grabbed the other three and she's been taking care of them ever since," Young said.

Yentyl treats the puppies like they were her own. She cleans, feeds and plays with them. She is also very protective. "If you try to take one, she tries to swat at you," Young said.

Although the puppies are able to eat solid foods, they still nurse from their feline surrogate mom, Young said.

One of the families adopting a dog will adopt Yentyl as well, Young said. Because the puppies were two weeks premature, Young said, developmentally they are equivalent to 7-week-old dogs. "A lot of work went into these puppies,"

"It's going to be hard to let them go, but we have to," Young said. "We have to wean the puppies away from their mother. They need about three more weeks or so. We're trying to separate them now a little bit more each day, to give Yentl some quiet time alone. But she always cries and wants her babies back."

Ever since the story appeared in a local newspaper last week, the phone has been ringing off the hook at the Garden State Animal Hospital with prospective adopters. Now, the puppies are all accounted for.

"There have been so many people who come in and want to see her and the puppies," Young said. "One woman wanted to adopt one of these puppies because she had four cats at home and thought that a puppy raised by a cat would be perfect to get along with. Everyone who comes in is just amazed by the whole story."

Young said she'll miss the puppies. But she has a lot of other duties that command her attention. "I also have five children at home, all under the age of 10," Young said. "So needless to say, we keep busy."

By Jim Hague Reprinted from: The Hudson Reporter