Ordinarily we focus on our creative endeavours in our blogs, but this story was too good not to share.
Our pup is almost 15 months old. She has been a wonderful addition to our family, being very sociable and eager to please. She appears to want nothing more than to be by our side as we go about our day, sharing our activities and our moods.

Given our pup’s gentle nature, we were not surprised when she became friends with a stray cat that took up residence under our front porch. Feeling a responsibility for the cat, we took it in only to find ourselves with an additional four kittens when the mother cat gave birth a couple of months later.
Our dog was immediately taken with the kittens, watching them through the days and nights and helping clean them. She would grow anxious when Mama cat absented herself from the nest for any length of time.
As the kittens grew, our pup became an active participant in their playtime.

We were soon to learn our pup’s empathy and caring extended beyond the people and other animals within our family.
One afternoon while working in the yard, I discovered our calico had caught a bird. As the cat sat down with the bird trapped beneath its paw, our pup came over to check things out. Upon seeing the small bird, the pup scooped it up in its mouth whole, trotting off with the bird’s tail feathers sticking out the side of her mouth.
The cat could only watch, somewhat rankled as the pup left with her prey. The pup lay down some way across the yard where she spat the bird out on the lawn. She lay there, unmoving, with the bird between her front paws and keeping close watch on the cat.

After several minutes, the bird roused itself from its stupor and suddenly flew away. The pup watched it fly up over our fence and out of sight then went about her business of defending the yard against sticks.
The dog has now rescued two birds from the jaws of our cats. In between episodes of being a hero to birds, our pup continues her watch over our brood of kittens.
