Little Dog Watched Over His Kitten Until They Were Rescued
"They are both happier and more outgoing when togetherâ đ
Some say that dogs and cats canât be best friends â but Morticia and Gomez managed to convince an entire stadium of people otherwise, in just one day.
Earlier this week, a Good Samaritan spotted a small dog and a little black kitten huddled together between two portable toilets at Hampton Soccer Park, in Hampton, Virginia.
The passerby decided to bring attention to the unusual pair, posting their whereabouts on the private social network Nextdoor. A few animal lovers rushed to the soccer complex, and sure enough, found the bonded pair still cowering in the grass, frozen in place.
Getting the two to safety, however, wouldnât be as easy as they thought. Gomez, a 2-year-old Chihuahua, insisted on protecting the tiny kitten at any cost.
âTotally bonded ⊠dog is growling if we get too close so we have notified animal control and are waiting for them,â a Good Samaritan wrote in a social media post. âThree of us are monitoring them right now.â
The two were eventually brought to a local shelter, and given time for their owner to come forward. A photo of the pair was shared on the Facebook group Lost & Found Pets of Hampton Roads, VA, where the post made Turkan Ertugrul, director of Saver of Souls Pet Rescue, stop everything she was doing.
âThey looked so scared in the picture it made us take notice,â Ertugrul told The Dodo. âWe tend to favor the scared ones because they just donât understand when you are trying to help.â
Ertugrul couldnât get the bonded animals out of her mind, especially since she knew they would most likely be kept apart at the shelter.
âAt most shelters, itâs against policy to put dogs and cats together for safetyâs sake and we knew they would be separated,â Ertugrul said. âTheir plight was keeping us up at night worrying about how they were doing apart from each other.â
Ertugrul knew there was more to just physical safety with animals who are bonded â psychological health is important, too. And even worse, she knew the shelter wouldnât be able to ensure that the 10-month-old kitten and her protective pup would go to the same home.
âMost shelters canât enforce that bonded pairs get adopted together,â Ertugrul said. âThey are there to save lives, and holding on to a pair that may take a long time to get adopted together would endanger others' lives.â
So she decided to make room for the pair as soon as they could be released and find them a home together. Luckily for Gomez and Morticia, shelter workers didnât want to separate the pair either, and organized playdates for the interspecies couple in a meeting room where they were always happy to see each other.
Now happily living together in a foster home, itâs clear just how deep the animalsâ bond goes. â[Gomez] ran up to the fosterâs black cats initially, thinking one was Morticia and you could see his disappointment when he realized it wasnât her,â Ertugrul said.
While the two are sweet and loving toward people, their bubbly personalities shine through when theyâre finally together. âGomez is shy around people when he first meets them, but warms up quickly. He really opens up when Morticia is around,â Ertugrul added. âThey are both happier and more outgoing when together than when they meet people individually.â
Once the two have been spayed and neutered, they will start the search for a home that will keep them together forever. And itâs clear nothing in this world would make them happier.