An article published by PupJournal was published on Tuesday with a video of a mama pit bull placing each of her 11 puppies onto the lap of her foster mom, Stevoni Wells Doyle. The video has since gone viral. One-by-one, she gently picks up a puppy, and quickly walks over to Doyle – already with a lap full of puppies – and places each helpless newborn on Doyle’s lap.

Rescue Rover rescued Grayce and Doyle was the willing foster recipient of Grayce and her soon-to-be-born puppies. That was three weeks ago.

The public was awestruck witnessing the trust the new mother dog had for her human. Not only does it leave the watcher in a state of wonderment, but it is fascinatingly puzzling, too.

In general, a mother – human or animal – is fiercely protective of her newborns. In fact, one of Crossing Guardians‘ rescue was the offspring of a mother who fought to her death saving her babies’ lives.

Some people say a nonhuman mother’s need to protect her babies is purely instinctual; that they don’t love their babies the way human mothers love their children. In fact, those same people who claim nonhuman mothers (including canines) protect their offspring based on instinct will use that same reasoning when a dog – male or female – protects their humans, arguing that it’s simply their instinct to stay alive.

Those who grew up around animals and have witnessed the behavior of animals towards their offspring after giving birth would vehemently disagree. Study after study has shown that animals love. With regard to canine, an article published by Barkpost, entitled “Scientific Proof Your Dog Loves You With All Their Heart And Nose,” stated that “According to a recent piece by Mic in partnership with GE,

Not only do dogs seem to love us back, they actually see us as their family. It turns out that dogs rely on humans more than they do their own kind for affection, protection and everything in between.

The question here, though, is, why is Grayce sharing her puppies with her human foster? What is going on in her canine brain while she is carrying her puppies to her human foster?

If there is an animal behaviorist who can share your educated guess with us, please do.

In the meantime, we humans – dimwitted or otherwise – will continue to anthropomorphize the situation and believe Grayce – being the good mama she is – didn’t want to be far from her puppies, but she wanted some loving from her human foster, too. To achieve both, she put total trust into Doyle and placed her puppies on her lap. There, she can be both close to her babies and get some loving from her foster mom.

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Featured image: Screenshot from YouTube Video, Saving Grayce.