She knew what she had to do.
Back in 2016, Maggie, an Australian shepherd, was in her cage when she heard the cries of puppies nearby, according to a Facebook post by Barker’s Pet Motel and Grooming. The family-run business in St. Albert, Alberta, often boards rescue dogs when there isn’t enough space for them elsewhere.
Maggie had given up her own babies a couple of weeks earlier and these puppies happened to be without a mother.
When all the humans left the site, Maggie made her move. “There’s a gate at the front of the kennel,” Alex Aldred, whose family owns the business, told The Dodo. “And there’s a spot where we can just slide in a water bowl. She pushed out her water bowl and wriggled her way through the opening.”
Maggie made her way down the hall until she found the two little orphans, clinging to each other.
Although she couldn’t slip inside the kennel with them, she pressed her body up to the cage as tightly as possible, as if to say, “It’s OK. I’m here for you.”
The Aldred family was out for dinner that night, and while checking the motel’s security cameras over their phone, they realized a dog had gotten out of a kennel.
Hurrying back from dinner, Sandy Aldred was greeted by a jubilant Maggie.
Together, they went back to the puppies’ kennel. Sandy Aldred opened the cage door and Maggie made herself at home inside.
“She was super affectionate with them,” Alex Aldred said. “She was mouthing them and they were kissing her chin. So we just decided to keep them together for the night.”
“When we got back in the morning, they were still all snuggled up,” Aldred added.
Maggie and the two puppies have all since found loving homes of their own. But, the people at Barker’s Pet Motel and Grooming will never forget the night that Maggie’s act of love helped the lonely pups get through a scary time.
