Pet stories and animal kindness have a way of catching you completely off guard. A cat who sensed a gas leak before anyone else in the apartment. A dog who decided a stray kitten needed a mother — and appointed herself. Reading these 16 stories, you start to wonder who is really taking care of whom.
1.
My cat usually sleeps all day, but suddenly she started running around the windowsills, hitting the windows and screaming her head off. I rushed over and didn’t immediately understand what she was reacting to. And then I noticed: there was a kitten right beneath our windows. He was meowing and gazing at us pitifully.
My heart ached, so I took the little one in, thinking I’d find him a home later. But no one responded, and it seems my cat immediately decided that this baby was hers. So, here we live as a trio: the cat is happy, the kitten is growing, and I watch this little ruckus and smile every day.
2.
When I visited my grandfather during school holidays as a child, there was a little owl running across the floor at his house. Grandfather said that the cat had rescued it during a hunt. He brought it home. The cat gave grandfather a strange look, then started licking the owl.
We nursed it back to health together with the cat, and they ate from the same bowl. The cat chased the dogs away from it in the yard. By the next holidays, the owl was no longer there, but every morning the cat found mice on the porch.
3.
Our family has a dog and a cat. They grew up together and adore each other: they sleep together, play, and get into mischief. So, for my dog, any feline is a potential friend who needs to be sniffed and licked immediately.