a season to give: another odd mama-dog tale

Happy day after Christmas, friends!  How pleasant it is to be throwing new toys around for the cats, and putting the fluffy new dog bed through its first wash.  It's a good week to keep the warm thoughts of giving well cherished.  Speaking of giving, here's one you may not have heard about the generosity of mom dogs (especially in the light of human foolishness when making an animal "collection"):
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THE ADOPTED SEAL.
Out in Oregon is a gentleman who is making a collection for a park. Recently he received a baby seal one day and a half old. No one knew how to take care of it; and the gentleman, who was very anxious to keep it alive, was greatly puzzled as to how he should feed the little stranger. He owned a beautiful retriever dog named Belle, who had a family of her own. She heard the bark of the seal when he grew hungry; and, like a dear little mother, she started out, leaving her own family, to discover who this baby was who needed a mother. When she saw the seal, she walked around and around it, very greatly puzzled.
At last she stood still, and the seal began flopping toward her very feebly. As it came nearer, it raised its head as if asking her help; and then the dear dog laid herself down, and the seal came up to her, and began taking its breakfast, and now the seal and the baby dogs are all one family.— Outlook

-- Mott, Frederick B., Brooke Herford, and Jabez Thomas Sunderland. The Unitarian: a Monthly Magazine of Liberal Christianity. Boston [etc.]: G. H. Ellis, v. 11 (1896), p. 521.