Mother Dog and Tiger Cubs Thriving

Six weeks ago at a zoo in Sochi, Russia, an Amur tiger – one of the rarest tigers on the planet – gave birth to a pair of cubs. Almost immediately the mother rejected both of her cubs and the Zoo rushed to find them a surrogate mother. The zoo was lucky and found a woman, Yekaterina Khodakova, very quickly whose Shar Pei Cleopatra had recently had a litter of puppies. The Zoo introduced Cleopatra the dog to the tiger cubs and she immediately accepted the tiger cubs as her own. She nursed them right away and the tiger cubs were happy. The zoo made the decision that the momma dog Cleopatra and her tiger cubs would be happier in the relatively quite environment of Yekaterina’s home especially because there were still her puppies to think about.







The tiger cubs think that they are puppies right now and follow their momma dog everywhere she goes. They climb stairs to get to her and try their best to climb on the bed when she is on it to be closer to her. The tiger cubs have the puppies as friends and playmates getting into all sorts of mischief. It is however the family’s Black Cat that they have bonded with and are in awe of always wanting the cat close by.