Jared Ashley Painter

This is Molly meeting the very scared barn kitty for the first time. Mittens, the kitty, was given a safe way to venture out of the barn. My 7 month old maremma found her. I decided to stand back and watch. Molly played it cool around Mittens and got only as close as was comfortable for kitty. She would act uninterested to make kitty feel safe even while kitty was growling a little. She just let kitty realize things were ok. Then she'd move to another spot a tad closer and act cool. She completely backed off if kitty was unhappy. It was a 15 minute dance they did. At one point Arlo (the puppy)went in for a greeting before it was safe to do so and Molly batted him away saving him from a scratched face. That was really neat to see. Mittens is now comfortable with Molly, not terrified of Arlo either, and safe outside the barn under Molly's care. This is all instinct. I didn't interfere once. I would have if anyone was going to get hurt. Molly is only 7 months old! I'm amazed by her intuition.