As park employee Olga Fateeva explained, “On one beautiful day, visitors brought us these wonderful squirrels in a box.”

The squirrels were quite young and still required mother’s milk. Realizing their need, park staff had an idea. As Pusha had just given birth to her kittens, “we decided to introduce them to her, and she accepted them.”

At first, the squirrels weren’t so sure about joining the cat and her kittens. Their instincts recognized Pusha as a predator, but once they understood their new foster mom meant no harm and only love, the squirrel babies settled in with their feline family just fine. Together, the kittens and squirrels have formed an adorable litter, and Pusha is so proud of her darling children. And like siblings, the babies do everything as a unit.

“They sleep together, follow each other, climb, and fight over milk,” Olga shared.

Because Pusha has so many mouths to feed, staff supplements the squirrel babies with goat milk to be sure they’re getting all the food they need. Between Pusha and the caring animal lovers of the park, these squirrels are headed for a good life.

Maybe it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that a cat would adopt squirrels. After all, baby squirrels are known as kittens or kits!