When a New York animal shelter worker brought home two rescued kittens who had been abandoned on the side of a road, she planned to bottle-feed them. But her sweet dog had a better idea.

Jamie Apfel’s Chihuahua, Lucy Liu, decided to make the kittens her own, reports WRIC.

The dog’s motherly instincts seemed to kick right in, and she cuddled the tiny black kittens and started nursing them.

“I was blown away,” Apfel tells the station. “If they’re feeding, she’ll nudge your hand out of her way… She’s very, very attached to them,” she laughs.

Still, Apfel says she’s confident Lucy Liu will be willing to give up her babies when the time is right.

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