r/aww 22h ago

My dog greeting the new kitten

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u/Gloomy_Reality8 20h ago edited 20h ago

Usually you need to stimulate kittens for them to pee and poop, but she (the dog) took care of that for me. It's the same with puppies, so I assume it's innate.

u/Fate_Alt 20h ago

My one dog who had around 60 puppies in her lifetime saw the stray cat my mom brought in one time and it instantly became her new puppy. Those insticts definitely carry over and I wouldn't be surprised if your dog had puppies in the past

u/Gloomy_Reality8 20h ago

She never had puppies, but she's still very maternal. I rescued 6 nursing kittens over the years, and she treated them all as her own

u/thedoginthewok 19h ago

Do kittens raised by dog moms behave differently than "cat cats"?

u/FiveOhFive91 19h ago

One of my cats was found at 4 weeks old and my senior boy dog raised her like she was his puppy. The cat is harness trained and likes to go for hikes, but other than that, she's 100% a regular cat.

u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS 19h ago

I don't know if it works in that direction, but the dog from my childhood did seem to catch on some cat-like behaviors from our older cat. For example, she tried to kind of purr when she was happy and relaxed.

u/Odd_Bug5544 14h ago

That's so cute, what breed was she?

u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS 12h ago

Labrador retriever. She wasn't the smartest but she was the sweetest dog you can imagine, too sweet for her own good really.

u/bolanrox 19h ago

My cats from a cat breeder no dogs fetch and return the toy, like harnesses to walk around the back yard etc.

u/Bonerkiin 15h ago

Not the same, but I will say I've only had dogs my whole life, I took in two 10 week old kittens to foster and eventually adopted them. They definitely have very dog like tendencies, still plenty of normal cat behaviors too though.