Collette

Collette was the ultimate mother dog. She not only cared for her own babies, but she also cared for kittens. These two kittens, Sunny and Fudder II, were way too old to be nursing, but Collette didn't mind.

I think she always thought she needed to pay back Fudder the First. Here is what happened. Collette and Fudder the First were both pregnant at the same time. Fudder had 3 kittens in my brothers closet. About 3 or 4 days later, Collette had her litter. She gave birth to 6 puppies. two of them were very tiny, and the big chubby ones pushed them out of the way. The two little runts were not strong enough to nurse, and were pushed by the others away from Collette's warm body. I took Collette out to go the front lawn to go potty, and Fudder, hearing the squealing puppies, left her brood to take a look. She took one of the runts by the scruff of its neck and hauled it back to her nest in the closet.

I saw her leaving with the puppy as I was bringing the dog back inside. I put Collette back in her basket and took off to retrieve the puppy, but Fudder hissed at me and actually chased me into the living room, cornering me in front of the TV set. Then she went over and stuck her nose in the basket and pulled out the other wimpering runt. I didn't follow her that time. Mom said to leave them be, since they were probably going to die if they were still in with the other puppies. We had to sneak them out a few days later to get their tails docked, and Fudder was not pleased at all to return to a couple of agitated puppies missing part of their tails.

Four weeks later, the kittens started tottering out of their dark closet nest. The little black puppies followed them. And Fudder taught every single one of those babies to use the litterbox. At six weeks, we re-introduced the runts to their littermates, and put a litterbox in the playpen. The bigger 4 puppies started mimicking the runts, and soon all 6 were using the litterbox.

Mom advertised the puppies as litterbox trained, and they sold like hotcakes.

After that incident, it seemed like Collette was grateful, because all of Fudder the First's future babies were welcome to the canine milk bar anytime Collette was lactating.

Like a reciprocal arrangement, or a professional courtesy between mothers, it seemed.