This concerned dog just wanted to make sure some young pups would be OK in a new place.
Maggie the dog was staying at the Barker's Pet Motel and Grooming in Alberta, Canada, when she was caught on a surveillance camera sitting outside a kennel that held two 9-week-old rescue puppies named Hannah and Kari last week.
The canine sneaked out of her own kennel to comfort them on their first night there, and after pet motel owner Sandy Aldred let Maggie into the pups' cage, the older dog spent the entire night cuddling with the two new guys on the block, according to ABC News.
“We’ve never really seen it before, where a dog sneaks out to some puppies and is so excited to see them.” Aldred's son, Alex, who also works at the pet motel, told ABC News.
Anna Cain, office manager at the pet motel, told The Huffington Post that Maggie, who is a former shelter dog herself, had been staying there while her owners were on vacation. The puppies were dropped off at the facility after they were rescued by Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society.
The thoughtful dog, who recently had puppies of her own that were adopted out by a humane society, likely heard Hannah and Kari crying, according to a Facebook post from the motel. So Maggie squeezed her way out of her kennel after pushing aside a water bowl built into her door. She then went right to the pups' cage.
"She paid them a lot of attention and you could see her little tail wagging. And she'd do the little bow down to them and poke them through the chainlink gate of their room," Aldred told CBC News. "She just decided that was where she was going to stay until we came to get her."
When Aldred returned to the kennels and let Maggie into the puppies' cage, she supervised to see if all the dogs would get along. And of course they did.
"They were just all so happy to be together," Aldred told CBC. "She was nuzzling them really gently and nudging them, and then she laid down and let them cuddle with her."
The trio stayed together and were even found snuggling the next morning, ABC News reported. While Maggie's actions are sweet, it's not uncommon for dogs who have had puppies, to act compassionately like she did.
“It’s innate in a lot of female dogs, especially if they’ve had a litter in the past. It’s just in their nature," Deanna Thompson of AARCS told ABC News. "We’ve seen it in a lot of dogs even with male dogs, when they hear other puppies crying they want to console them and make sure they’re feeling safe.”
Maggie and the pups have parted ways unfortunately as her owners have returned from their trip. There are pending adoption applications for both puppies, but for the time being, the pair are in the motel, Cain said.
Also on HuffPost:
Dog Explores Abandoned Places
