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India

Monkey mothering kittens

Ever hear of "Gorillas in the Mist?" Well, today we went one better. We had "Monkey in the tree taking care of kittens!" We had just come home from school, when our downstairs neighbors came running up, shouting something about monkeys and cats and cameras. 

We followed them down, and looked out the window to see a whole flock of crows converging on a tree. We didn't know what was up until we spied a monkey in the middle of all the birds, charging at them and scattering them. Even then, we didn't know what was up until the monkey swung down out of the tree onto a next-door rooftop.

This monkey had two kittens it was protecting!! Somehow or other, she had picked up two baby cats, and was swinging around in the trees with them. When she came out onto the roof, we could see them clearly and even hear them mewing!
Now, crows are notorious for attacking and killing smaller animals (such as kittens) and they weren't giving this mother any respite at all. She stared them down for a while, as the little felines squirmed and mewed.

 
I'm guessing that she's trying to raise them, since A) she was carrying them so carefully, and B) this was the second sighting of them in a week (and the cats are still alive). Having had enough of the birds - even though our neighbors were scaring them away by squirting them with water guns - she picked up the kittens and headed back for the trees.
Carrying one of them just like a mother cat would, she brought them back into the tree and waited for nightfall, when the birds would leave. We can only guess why she's adopted these cats, but it sure made for an amazing sight this afternoon!

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