Wean

wean
verb, transitive. To accustom an infant or other young mammal to food other than its mother’s milk. To accustom someone to managing without something upon which he has become dependent or of which he has become excessively fond. As “be weaned on”, to be strongly influenced by something, especially from an early age.

When Nancy learned that the neighbors’ cat had had kittens, she put dibs on two. She and Steve had noticed a bad rodent problem in and around their new house, and they knew that a pair of yard cats would solve it. They were delighted when Helen and her two children arrived about two weeks later, carrying two little cats. They were adorable, but it wasn’t long before Helen’s dishonesty became apparent. The kittens quickly latched onto Steve and Nancy’s dog, who was still nursing a litter of puppies, and joined the puppies in their meals.

“Their mother hadn’t weaned them yet,” Nancy told Steve as they stood and watched.

“Evidently not,” Steve agreed. “I guess Helen didn’t want to have to buy any more cat food than necessary.”

The fosterlings of a different species didn’t seem to cause the dog any anxiety. It wasn’t long before she weaned the puppies, and homes were found for them. The kittens continued to benefit from the dog’s condition and generosity, for although they continued to grow, they stopped doing so before they reached the size at which the puppies had been weaned. After a few weeks, the dog’s milk stopped, or the cats developed a taste for solid food, or both. It seemed a natural occurance and none of the three appeared to be unhappy.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.