17 Animal Friendship Stories That Prove Kindness and Warmth Have No Species

When we got a puppy a month ago, our cat Max started ignoring everyone, felt jealous, and looked at us with a hurt expression during the first week. It seemed as though he would never forgive us for adopting this fluffy disturber of peace.
And now? Now he licks the puppy so diligently, as if the puppy were his unfinished project. Sometimes, they sleep cuddled up, but more often, they have zoomies at 2 a.m., like a pair of racehorses.
And yes, Max firmly stands his ground: he is the boss. By age, by status, by feline right. And the puppy agrees with it — for now.

My mother-in-law asked my husband and me to go to the country house. Our husky came with us. My husband was digging, and I was painting the trees with lime, when suddenly the dog jumps up, runs to the fence, and starts whining at the neighbor's apple tree.
My husband went to calm it down. Then I saw him freeze, and he said, "Baaaabe, look who's sitting here!" I dashed over as fast as I could and saw a parrot on the neighbor's tree! A beautiful, massive macaw! This country house has been abandoned, there's no one there.
We never figured out where the bird came from. We lured it with a piece of banana, and it calmly flew over and perched on my husband's shoulder as if it'd lived with us all its life. The next day, it was riding with us in the car home, snuggling against our dog, who kept nudging the parrot with its nose and licking it.

We rented an apartment with my husband. The landlady was wonderful. She even gave us a discount because we were a young couple. We had a kitten, who immediately disliked the bathroom. It would go in, hiss, and run away. We checked everything; there was nothing there.
On the third night, we heard some rustling noises coming from there in the middle of the night. The kitten, who was sleeping with us, arched and hissed. My husband went to investigate. I hear, “Well, hello!” I come in and see a hamster on the floor with pieces of toilet paper lying around.
In the morning, we called the landlady, and she went, “Oh, that’s Peanut! My grandson brought it, but it escaped. We couldn’t find it, and apparently, it lived under the bathtub all this time.”
The funniest part is that as soon as the kitten saw the hamster, it immediately became interested in it. Sometimes the kitten sniffed it, sometimes it gently touched it with the paw. The hamster wasn’t afraid of the kitten at all.
We bought a cage with a wheel for the hamster, but it somehow still manages to escape. Moreover, it treats the kitten like a child: sometimes it brings the kitten a lettuce leaf, or pieces of paper to make the cat’s bed warmer. It’s a miracle!

When our cat had babies, our German Shepherd would babysit the kittens when the mom was away. She was so gentle with them and didn’t mind them playing on her or trying to drink from her. Though we had to stop her from picking them up. She would try to do that when the kittens started wandering around.

After a tough breakup with my husband, I decided to get a dog to distract myself. I went to a shelter, where I was greeted by a young caretaker. We got to talking when suddenly we heard whining.
He dashed toward the sound, and I followed. In the corner was a huge dog whining while a gray kitten scurried around him. The guy laughed, “Missy, stop bothering Milo!”
As it turned out, Milo was a Caucasian Shepherd and Labrador mix. He’d been in the shelter for several years, he got there when he was still a puppy. He was so large that no one wanted to adopt him.
And Missy, the tiny kitten, was brought in by local kids who found her on the street. She was so tiny that they set up a little spot for her in the corner. A few days later, she disappeared, only to be found in Milo’s pen. He accepted the little one and since then, she’s been bossing him around.
I couldn’t take the dog because he’s too big for my small apartment, but I now often visit the shelter to check on this couple.

I have 2 dogs, both mixed-breed — one is a large Alabai mix, and the other is a small pup that barely reaches mid-calf. People are very scared of the large one, they really shy away from him. But if I had a choice, I’d be more wary of the little one.
Our kittens jump on the big dog, he licks them as if they’re his own, licks the cat, and she can calmly take food from his bowl. But the small one is vicious, who somehow intimidates all the neighbor’s dogs. So when people tell me that big dogs are mean, I look at my little one and think that people don’t know much about dogs.

We were walking the dog in the park early in the morning. Everything was as usual, I was listening to music on my headphones, and the dog was trotting beside me. Suddenly, I felt the leash jerk sharply, and my super calm Denny seemed to go crazy. He started whining, jumping, and pulling me toward the bushes.
I went to look, and there were 2 kittens: a gray one and a ginger one. Their eyes were already open, but they were still very young. It was April, and it was still cold in the mornings, and they were alone. I waited for half an hour, thinking maybe their mom would show up, but she never came.
And Denny lay down next to them to keep them warm. My heart melted, and I decided to take these kittens home. I named the ginger one Ron and the black one Axel. My mom later took Ron for herself, and Axel stayed to live with Denny and me.

We were driving down the highway, and I noticed a puppy sitting by the roadside. It looked frightened, and it was all alone. I asked my husband to stop. We picked it up. It seemed fine, but we needed to figure out where to take it.
We already have a grumpy black cat at home who doesn’t like anyone in this world, and a parrot who sometimes annoys the cat out of sheer spite. It was getting late, so we decided to take it in for the night and find it a home later.
As soon as we entered the apartment, the cat got all worked up: he started meowing and tried to get to the puppy, who was in my arms, but showed more interest than malice. We let the cat sniff the puppy, and then the cat started licking the little one and purring loudly.
In short, the cat became the puppy’s guardian: he slept with it, played with it, and never once tried to hurt it. He really missed the puppy when we found it a good home.

One day, our cat dragged a scruffy kitten up to our door and just sat there waiting to see what we’d do. We discussed it with my husband and eventually decided not to take the kitten, thinking we already had too many pets. But we decided we’d keep an eye on it and take it to my parents’ country house in a week. As soon as we wanted to pick up the kitten, our furry madam stood on end, hissed at us, took the kitten, and left.
She settled in a corner in the hallway. She let no one near her and the kitten, took care of it, and only occasionally approached the food bowl. She completely ignored us, didn’t eat the food we brought, and only deigned to eat food brought by the children and my mother-in-law. This continued for a week.
Then the dog gave us the cold shoulder, simply refusing to come back from a walk. She broke away from the leash and lay down next to the cat. She kept them warm for a couple of days, letting only the children near her in the same way.
After that, and with the children’s persuasion, we went, apologized to the fluffies, and brought all three home. Now they all live together in peace at home, although sometimes I feel like the animals give us sideways glances. And they got their way!