I'm sure we've all heard about animals that nurture animals of other species, or of male animals behaving maternally. This link has a wonderful video with examples of such stories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK5uPBF-s5Y&feature=email
I've seen this a lot with my owns pets, past and present. I had a donkey that took care of a litter of kittens whenever their mama had to leave the barn. The donkey, Snort, was fiercely protective of them, and would keep them curled up again his belly. A black rat snake in the barn helped out with the kittens as well.
One of my favorites examples was of my dear, late Maine Coon mix Harpo. He was a gentle giant who didn't socialize much with the other kitties, although he got along well with them. When we rescued a litter of kittens, one of the black long-haired boy kittens looked for a surrogate mother. If Harpo was laying on his side, Rocky the kitten would curl up face-first in Harpo's belly. Rocky would swirl a section of long tummy fur in his mouth, creating a faux nipple. He would suck on it for hours, with his saliva acting like glue or a firm styling gel. Sometimes the "nipple" would have to be cut off later because it couldn't be groomed out.
Throughout this Harpo was a good mom; he groomed Rocky and would rest his arm over his back to allow his baby more surface area on which to nurse. Rocky grew to be a huge cat himself, he still tried to nurse on Harpo even after he was an adult. This was quite a sight because he was at least as big as Harpo at that point! Both of these lovely boys are gone now, but they lived long lives. The pic here shows Harpo; it is an old photo so the resolution might not be good.
Val
