On a snowy night in Canada, a driver found a shivering, stray dog on the roadside, but she wasn’t alone.
On that fateful, freezing cold evening in Ontario, the good girl was found curled up, wrapped around orphaned kittens.
It wasn’t the safest place for the pup to spend the night, but looking after the babies was clearly her main priority.
Thankfully the pup was found when she was – on a night like that, the chances of making it through the night were pretty slim.
In order to repay her for the kind deed, the Good Samaritan (who has remained unnamed) took the pooch and the five kittens away from the crushingly low temperatures to the Pet and Wildlife Rescue shelter.
A shelter spokesperson told The Dodo:
It’s truly heartwarming! It had been a very cold night so these kittens would have had a very hard time surviving.
Rescue staff made one thing abundantly clear: if it hadn’t been for that dog, those kittens would be dead right now.
The kittens are in safe hands and doing fine – however, after their time outdoors, presumably after their mother died, they require treatment for flea and worm infestations.
The stray dog is being well-looked after at the shelter, and also makes sure to pay the young kittens regular visits as they recuperate. The kittens may be orphaned, but they certainly have a new mother.
Thanks to this brave dog, five lives were saved, and six pets may get new homes.
The spokesperson added:
Our staff sees many difficult situations on a daily basis and stories like this one make every heartache worth it.
The shelter are holding the animals there with the hope that their owners will come forward. If nobody claims them, they’ll be put up for adoption like the other pets at the shelter.
If working at an animal shelter interests you, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay is looking for people to come in and cuddle frightened dogs (as well as assist veterinarians and clean up the shelter).
Shelter staff explained that the number of volunteers massively varies due to issues like students returning to school and having more spare time to give in the summer months. With numbers at an all-time low, they’ve put out a fresh call for animal lovers.
What a good girl.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.