Stray dog found sheltering five kittens from the cold on Ont. road

TORONTO -- A stray dog in Chatham-Kent, Ont. has generated a lot of love across the internet after she was found sheltering five kittens from the cold last week.

The Pet and Wildlife Rescue (P.A.W.) shelter posted photos of a proud looking pooch and five tiny kittens on their Facebook on Nov. 16, with a caption stating that this “stray sweetheart,” was “keeping her ‘babies’ safe.”

The shelter clarified in a follow-up post that the dog, Serenity, was spotted curled up around the kittens on the side of the road, keeping them warm. The Good Samaritan who noticed the animals called the shelter to pick them up. A shelter employee told CTVNews.ca over the phone that the kittens were around five weeks old at the time, and that it is unlikely they would’ve been spotted if Serenity had not been there with them.

Since that first post, the kittens have been taken in by a foster family, where they will stay until they are old enough to be on their own and go up for adoption, the shelter said.

The shelter’s Facebook page has been flooded with comments begging them to keep the dog and her kittens together and foster or adopt them out as a group. The shelter explained in their second post that if they waited for the kittens to be old enough to adopt out with Serenity, the pup would be waiting months to get her “forever family,” and that “it is always the staff’s goal to get dogs out of the shelter environment and into their forever homes as soon as possible.”

Adoption offers have piled in for Serenity, just based on her parental instincts. The P.A.W. shelter made sure to describe her personality “quirks” as a heads up for potential owners -- the two-year-old dog has the “energy of a toddler,” is “quite jumpy and need(s) to be taught some manners,” and would be best suited to a home without small children or other dogs, according to the post.

However, Serenity is “obviously great with cats,” the shelter said.