A VOLUNTEER at a cat shelter rescued a little black kitten, only to be shocked to learn later that the adorable animal wasn’t what it first appeared.
The kitten was found by Martine Vos, a volunteer at a cat shelter in Belgium, who shared her story with The Dodo.
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“A man called our rescue number because he found a very little black kitten, only a few days old,” said Vos.
“He asked us to come and pick up this little baby.”
Later on, after consulting with vets and wildlife centers, Vos learned that the rescue was a fox and not a kitten.
Vos initially came in to rescue the kitten and took photos of it, feeling that something was off with the animal yet not knowing exactly what it was.
“When I took the baby in my hands, she seemed really big and it felt totally different from how a kitten should feel,” she said.
Vos also shared that the nearby area was searched, and there was no sign of the kitten’s mother or possible siblings, which was strange.
In hopes of finding answers, Vos and some colleagues to the kitten to the vet, who also found the animal confusing.
The vet didn’t know what it was. “The one thing she was sure of is that it was a baby girl,” she said.
Vos turned to a wildlife center for answers.
“They recognized it as a baby fox.”
While foxes are more closely related to dogs than cats, when they’re pups, they resemble cats and sometimes have darker fur than the orange fur foxes are associated with.
Wild animals have oftentimes been confused with household pets like dogs and cats, providing rescuers and owners with a shock.
In 2016, a family rescued what they thought was a Tibetan Mastiff only to learn that the dog kept on eating and growing, reaching 250 pounds.
They learned that the dog was an Asiatic black bear.
Another family experienced a similar story, adopting a pair of adorable kittens that were actually bobcats.
They made the discovery after experiencing some of their bites, realizing that they felt much more painful than the average kitten bite.
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