A senior dog was found doing the sweetest thing for his owner’s new foster kitten.

Lindsey Miller from California found herself tearing up after discovering her 10-year-old dog Nellie watching over her new 3-month-old feline friend Crush.

“Crush was brought into our home after I reached out to help foster cats after the LA fires,” Miller told Newsweek. “Once Crush was in the house, Nellie was on watchdog duty—which felt more motherly than anything. I think Nellie always wanted puppies but got stuck with an orange kitten instead.”

In 2018, a survey of nearly 750 pet parents with both cats and dogs, published as part of a study from the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, revealed that, despite claims to the contrary, the two species were very capable of living alongside one another.

More than 80 percent of respondents felt their pets were comfortable with one another, with only 3 percent stating that their cats and dogs struggled to coexist. Of the two species, however, dogs were the ones found to play peacemaker more often.

The study found cats were three times more likely to threaten dog housemates than vice versa. By contrast, more than a fifth of dogs tried to initiate play by picking up toys to show them to cats, compared to only 6 percent of cats.

Nellie certainly took a shine to Crush from the minute he arrived in Miller’s home. “Where Crush went, Nellie went. Where Crush slept, Nellie slept. She kind of has always just watched over him since he came into the house,” she said. “I’ve caught her a few times just staring at Crush sleeping—in his crate or on the bed—just making sure he feels safe and at home.”

Miller recently uploaded a video of this to her TikTok account, crushandnellie, showing Nellie watching over her feline friend. “File it under ‘things my heart absolutely cannot handle,'” she wrote alongside the clip. Miller said: “She probably had watched him for 15 minutes before falling asleep herself that day.”

As soon as Miller saw the way Nellie had become bonded to Crush in such a short space of time, she knew her stay as a foster kitten was going to become a permanent one. “Once I saw how infatuated she was with him I could never break them up,” she said. “They also matched colors.”

Though Nellie is clearly smitten with Crush, Miller is pleased to report that the feeling is mutual. “Crush equally loves her too,” she said. “He likes to clean her ears and her paws in his spare time.”

It all amounts to a beautiful and entirely unique animal friendship.