50 thoughts on “A cat saves a tiny puppy”

    1. The cat saw the pup was in trouble, knew it shouldn’t be down there, and decided to get him out. I frequently see cats doing things that may not benefit them directly but are caused by other motivations. In this case, the cat may have been driven by a parental instinct.

      1. In my neighborhood, it is not uncommon for cats to be seen dragging / coaxing somewhat helpless mammals in the direction of the cat’s dinner table.

    2. Proximally, rescuing the pup relieved whatever empathetic distress the cat felt at the pup’s predicament. The cat felt better after doing it.

      If you’re asking why cats should have such feelings, presumably it’s because on average, their genes benefit from acts of kindness to small nearby mewling creatures.

    4. It’s the maternal/empathy instinct that’s beneficial to cats. It sometimes goes awry to include the young of other species.

    5. Small, furry creature similar in shape and size to a kitten might look more like a kitten than a puppy.

    6. There are many copies of this incident on YouTube & this is just the latest copy – the oldest ones I see are 2015 & then the video was called “Mother Cat Saves Her Kitten”

        1. that version of the video has sound and at one point (replayed) Im sure I hear a tiny meow that sounds like a kitten

    7. Don’t you think the cat is just reacting to an infant in trouble the way people would, that it’s just a broadly appealing stimulus?

  4. A fascinating and touching act by the cat rescuing the puppy. But, yes, I can imagine the reverse situation.

    1. Me too. The common factors most likely will be an adult female, currently or recently caring for their young, and they are confronted with what is a proxy for their young.

      1. It could be, though I had a male cat who adopted a kitten and cared for it very kindly. He was neutered and had no pure behavioral reason for doing so, yet he did. She still does things he taught her to do.

  5. Good for the cat. But it bothers me the human taking the video didn’t help the puppy. Maybe there’s a legit explanation but it wasn’t apparent in the video.

    1. My thoughts exactly. I hope there were two people on site, one taking the video and the other trying to figure out how to get down into the ravine to assist.

    2. I saw this comment on the Youtube video too. I think they may have filmed it instead of helping immediately because the puppy wasn’t near running water or any such thing, and not really in immediate danger, so they could always go save the pup if the cat didn’t help. It’s only a minute long video, after all.

    3. It’s a dry ditch with a large drop that you can see & another large drop [the other side of the ditch] near to the camera. The kitten [or puppy] is not in danger since there’s no running water to fall into.

      The camera person is on high ground the same as the cat – we are not shown how the kitten [or puppy] fell down there, but it makes sense to let the cat get on with the rescue & only get involved if it’s clear the kitten [or puppy] is beyond the cat’s help.

  7. Cats are famously good mothers. I recall reading once, at an impressionable age, about female cats being kept on silver fox farms expressly to look after young foxes that were abandoned by their mothers–foxes apparently NOT being famously good mothers.

  8. I assume that in the next scene the cat can be seen to be feasting on puppy?

    Just kidding, of course. Great video. When I observe animals interacting with each other it always reminds me that we share so much of our behaviour in common. Another example: I recently spent some time in Monterrey Bay, CA observing sea-otters, and in particular the interactions between a mother and her baby. The mother would dive down, collect food and return to the surface and, if she didn’t immediately locate her baby, would get quite distressed and call out. The baby would then respond and both individuals would rush toward each other and the mother would relax again. My (somewhat obvious) conclusion: affectionate and protective tendencies of mothers towards their babies seems to be common between sea-otters and humans.

  10. That’s some jump the kitteh makes. Straight up, launching off a steep crumbling slope and carrying the pup. Quite impressive.

    cr

    1. I thought so, too. And the puppy must weight a good deal more than even an older kitten. I wondered how she was going to manage that leap, but she did it on the first try.

  11. The video ended too soon. Maybe the cat ran out of chicks and birds to eat so she’s after puppy now.

    And even if she did save the pup, she’s still a cat. Cats will never be anything other than useless animals. I like your blog Jerry, but I have zero interest in cat posts.

    2. Cats can be very maternal. There were absolutely no predatory body signs anywhere – indeed the cat showed very much anxious parent type motions and behaviours prior to jumping down to the rescue. And it would have made more sense to kill the puppy when it was helpless at the bottom of the pit and eat it there where it was convenient and out of reach of other predators. There are plenty of vids linked to this one showing maternal cross species behaviour by and to cats for and from dogs. Presumably the cat has recently had kittens or else is missing a related companion.

    4. As I recall, Professor Ceiling Cat is outstandingly good at including the word “cat” in the subject line of his cat postings, giving a most reasonable head’s up to anyone inclined to delete the email as a result of seeing the word “cat.”

      Of course, it’s possible that one might find it too fatiguing to manually delete an email. Perhaps an app exists to automatically do that for one.

  13. “And can you imagine the reverse situation?”

    Yes, I can, inasmuch as I am owned by a black standard female poodle.

  14. If you end the video in just the right place you can watch the waiter rescue a lobster from the restaurant tank.

  16. I’d bet it’s a female cat with her maternal instincts kicking in. Or I could be wrong and the cat simply, casually grabbed the pup, killed it and ate it later.

  17. Great cat, but I wonder why the asshole recording this didn’t step in to help the puppy from the start. We’ve become a spectator world.

  18. Looks like a kitten to me. Its tail posture is like a cat. Also after it takes a tumble you can see cat-like ears.

  19. Likely the cat was female and perceived the puppy to be a helpless infant. Maternal instinct is very prominent in cats. Mothers will protect and defend offspring even at the risk of their own lives.

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