Last night the stray cat we are housing, temporarily I hope, fell off the cat stand and hit the piano on the way down.  Jet was right over to him, checking him out all over.  I can't believe this kind, gentle dog would see this as a possible opportunity to inflict even more damage but was she actually showing concern for the cat?  The cat is OK.

Other times Jet has acted as if she might defend our own cats.  Jet never chases stray cats till Ginger howls at them.  Ginger is very pretty and guests like to pick her up but Ginger does not like to be picked up and she protests verbally and every time Jet is right there, acting very agitated.  She even jumped up on the examining table and barked at the Vet once.  Our timid, gentle, submissive and quiet Lab.   So, is she saying, "Don't you hurt my cat"?  Or is she saying, "Are you gonna hurt the cat?  Oh boy, can I help?"

I prefer to think it is compassion and concern.  What do you think?  Any more examples of compassion out there?

No!

Anything is fair game to my dog.  If it runs or flies chase it and if it doesn't then harrass it. A couple of times we've come across an injured/sick bird and she was all up for terrifying them and had to be dragged off.

Compassion? From Henry the ruler of the world?? All other creatures should bow down and pay homage!! :-D (that's what he says anyway)

My sadly deceased Tulka still ahd her hunting instincts intact as far as being interested in and finding animals, but she woudl never ki them, and bought mice, birds etc to hand unhurt.  She also bought me many a corpse too, yuk!!!

Yes I think they do

My two always know when one of us is poorly as they will always be more attentive :)

Two Golden stories. I used to look after a crossbreed JR x BC and she could be awful with cats but usually behaved. One day when I had a litter of kittens aged 10 weeks she suddenly went for one of them -attacked him and injured him so his face was bleeding. Thankfully he wasn't seriously injured. Well Dandy my male Golden literally JUMPED at the crossbreed (in fact he broke her leg, he is a big boy) and told her to get off, then laid down next to the kittens and stayed next to them for the rest of the day, nuzzling them and washing them and making sure no dogs came near them. I never had the crossbreed over again.

Elsa the Golden bitch did NOT have a phantom, but I rescued a 3 week old pup and she immediatey started to care for it and allowed the pup to suckle, which it did so much that Elsa started to develop milk. Once the kittens realised there was milk about, they all  joined the pup, and so I had several kittens and one puppy all suckling from her. :) Probabkly nothing to do with compassion that one, but a nice experience. Just so much wish I'd had a better camera at the time as the photos I took are rubbish.

ours seem to know when we aren't feeling great.  the are more affectionate and just want to be with us more.

as for other animals, cat size or smaller, eh...no....

these things are all edible and if they are hurt they are just easier to catch

I have the strangest story.  Our eldest, when he was a youngster, found the dead body of a dog in the woods.  It had been dumped under a bush, and was partially wrapped in a sheet, so obviously put there by a human.  He was at the spot, very agitated, and I went to see what was troubling him He had been in my view all the time - he didn't touch the body or anything - just paddled about in an agitated way, looking to me and then to the body.  I was shocked, and decided to end the walk there and then.  I took him back to the car and he promptly vomited in it.  All evening he was obviously distressed, paddling about and climbing onto my knee at every opportunity.  By next morning he was fine again.  I phoned the rangers in the morning and arranged to meet one to show them the body so that they could remove it.

Now, I don't know if he had picked up on my upset, but I don't think it was that.  He had been clearly disturbed when he found the body and I really think he was shocked by his discovery!  This is a hunting dog, who has no qualms about chasing down rabbits, picking up rancid bird bodies etc etc, but he acted totally differently in this instance.  I think he knew it was a dog, and reacted in a canine version of how we might if we found the body of one of our own species.  Very odd, and I still find it slightly "disturbing" to this day.

Lesley 

my girl Bella used to take a mouthful of food and drop it at both of my cats feet to feed them . sadly they both died last year at 19 years old but she does it to our pups who are 8 months old not sure if thats the mother in her still doing it , arent they a bit old now to do that with :D so mabe she has carried her cat feeding trait on to the pups

LF, I believe it was concern for the other dog too.  I saw a TV show on search and rescue dogs at an earthquake site.  One of the lady dog handlers said the dogs get very depressed if they consistently find dead bodies of people.  She said they have to rest the dog, get it away, and arrange a fake live body find for the dogs to keep them working.  Another show I saw was on Bloodhounds used to find missing people.  The handler said his dog howled when he found a person but had different voices for dead and live finds.  There's no doubt they know the difference and seem to be affected somehow, by death.

Goldmali, those are great stories.  I know of a Dachshund who refused to look after her own puppies but the next year mothered a bunch of newly hatched chicks.

my bitch lupin is very submissive and so it is hard to tell. however my other bitch puepa is very dominant and strong willed. she hoever loves my cats, and loves nothign more than to cuddle up to them and wash them. i have actually many times seen her activly seek them out to cuddle up to liek a teddy bear!

anythign else liek teddy bears, or dog toys gets shredded and she isnt particualy nice to other dogs. she will play nice, but dosnt liek them coming into her personbal spcase. so its definatly a cat thing!

Further to LF's story, my own girl displayed only curiosity when we found the dumped body of a dead dog.  But she got very upset and agitated with two live finds. 

One was a brand new fawn, lying as the doe had left it, unmoving, on a mossy patch of ground in very dense bush.  Jet did the Lassie bit, back and forth to me with lots of high pitched barking, and she is not a barking dog normally.  I think she was disturbed by the fact it did not move.  We left it of course, and when we checked the next day it was gone, thankfully not shocked too much by the loud barking dog.

Her other find was an injured fox kit.  She did the Lassie bit again and this time I knew to suspect she'd found an animal.  We took it to a wildlife rehabilitation centre where it recovered and that fall was released back into the wild. 

Whether either of these two espisodes is compassion or just frustration on Jet's part because the critters would not get up and play with her I can't say.  But she didn't try to hurt either of them.

If nearly squidging a bumble bee with some overzellous sniffing, bombing around the garden 'chasing' the birds flying over it and trying her dambdest to 'play' with the cat who just repeatedly wacks her (10 month old Sheltie) one is anything to go by then no :rolleyes:  But its all play so I reckon she's a little softie at heart ;)

Hi

My GSD dog is the biggest sop out he is very concerned about everyone. If I am hand rearing a baby rabbit he will stand with his head on the table looking concerned. If the kids cry he snuggles up to them to make sure they are ok. And the look on his face when he sees the puppies is priceless. He should of been born a bitch lol.

I once had a JRT that brought her self into milk and raised a stray puppy. It was about a week old and I could not get him to take a bottle. Didnt know of any bitches in the area that could foster him. I had him in a box and he wouldnt stop crying. My Russell jumped into the box and settled him. He started to suckle her and it kept him quiet. Very soon after she was in  full milk and raised him till I was able to rehome him at the normal age. She wasnt having a false pregnancy at the time either.

When I brought my human baby home from hospital the russell I had then would come and find me when ever she cried. Not sure if she was concerned for the baby or just wanted me to shut the noise up

Wendy

Not for small animals such as cats, she just doesn't understand small animals at all.  But any injured dog or human she has great compassion for ie my friend's dog when he cut his dew claw digging and my OH when he bangs his head (frequent occurence 'cos he's very tall).  My friend's dog loves cats and when she first got her kittens he would put the whole kitten in his mouth and carry them around.  Had to watch he didn't drown them in slobber.  He now gets groomed by the cats and they curl up with him to sleep - bless :D

We used to have a rabbit and a couple of guinea pigs that used to live out in a run in the garden between April and October.  The rabbit was constantly escaping from the run and used to spend days hopping around the (secure) garden before deciding to re-join his guinea pigs.  Our old Springer x Border Collie used to lie in the sun with the rabbit snuggled up to her asleep!  One day the rabbit managed to get out of the garden and Jess went wild, running up and down the fence barking.  She didn't settle until I had caught him and returned him to Jess!  However, Jess would have no qualms about chasing and killing anything else she could get hold of when she was out walking.

It's hard to tell what's going on in their minds, isn't it?  My first dog, Teddy, the family pet, was a great groundhog killer and much appreciated by my grandfather for removing this threat to his cow's legs.  Then one day Mum decided to get rid of the starling nest close to our house.  Unfortunately the starlings were not only hatched but nearly ready to fly and they all fluttered away.  Teddy was instructed to "get them" and he did, bringing each one back alive.  He dropped them at Mum's feet and they all fluttered away again.  We kids were angry, upset and disgusted with Mum and thrilled for the little birds who escaped. 

Teddy always knew if the creature, whether human, dog, cat or bird, was a baby and displayed a tolerance he never did for the adult.  I've read that wild male canids are tolerant of the young of their own species, even if not sired by them (unlike wild male cats, who kill kittens in order to bring the mother into season again) so maybe tolerance of the young of other species is just some sort of carryover from that?