While their lives began on the most uncertain footing – left behind in a dumpster at just a few weeks old – these kittens have found the softest landing of all.
The downy belly of the massive dog who dotes on them.
Caitlin Burkhart
Caitlin Burkhart’s stepmother was among the people who found the abandoned kittens. There were six orphans in all, divided up by their rescuers.
Three ended up at the Burkhart home in Atlanta, Georgia, where they soon found a formidable parental figure in the family’s 1-year-old Saint Bernard.
“Guinness absolutely loves the kittens to death,” Caitlin Burkhart tells The Dodo. “He follows them around the house wherever we take them, and wherever the kittens are he is right next to them looking at and checking on them.”
Caitlin Burkhart
Of course, the dog’s sheer heft means being extra careful around the newborns.
“While he is extremely enthusiastic and excited about the kittens, we do have to be really careful to supervise them because one step of his giant paws could easily crush them,” Burkhart explains. “He’s a gentle giant.”
Caitlin Burkhart
Most of the kittens have been adopted. But two will remain with the Burkharts – a short-haired kitten named Stud Muffin and his fluffy sister, Kali.
And for these two, that’s a good thing.
“I think they actually like having him because they were taken from their mom so early in life,” Burkhart says.
Caitlin Burkhart
Indeed, Kali and Stud Muffin are getting an early lesson in the love they so sorely missed as newborns. Thanks to a dog named Guinness.
