Australian cat thinks it's a chicken

Four legs, two pointy ears, whiskers on his face - Bustopher might look like one, but he is far from being an ordinary cat. The four-year-old feline thinks he's a chicken.

When Naomi Oliver's chickens laid their eggs and didn't show much interest in the incubation and the upbringing of their offspring, the animal-lover's feline took over the command in the chook shed - and started incubating the eggs.

"I am not sure if he knows that he is a cat, he doesn't really behave like one," Mrs Oliver said. "Bustopher often wanders around in the chook pen, playing with the chooks as if he was one of them, not a predator."



But it wasn't until her chooks laid a few eggs in a nest outside their shed that Mrs Oliver discovered her cat's quirky affection for her poultry.

"I was looking for Bustopher and found him sitting on the eggs, obviously trying to incubate them," Mrs Oliver said. "When he was still there after three days I started wondering what was going through his head - but I am sure he thought he was doing a great job."

Mrs Oliver said her cat only left his nest once or twice a day to grab a feed and have a nap on her bed, before heading back to his hatchlings-to-be. "He's a real character, and obviously friends with my hens but when nothing hatched after three days he gave up on sitting on the eggs."