Lilo the Siberian husky never had her own litter of puppies, but she certainly had the motherly instinct to care for a little one -- even if that little one wasn't a puppy.
When 2-year-old Lilo met 2-week-old Rosie, the malnourished kitten who was on the brink of death, Lilo stepped into mama bear mode and raised her like her own.
Thi, Thoa and Tram Bui are sisters who live in San Jose, and they are the human parents of huskies Lilo and Infinity. The sisters have fostered a number of cats together, and they said when they found Rosie just two weeks after she was born, she was in bad shape. They feared the worst.
Rosie wouldn't eat, and she was weak and lethargic. She clearly needed a few more weeks with her mother's milk, but that wasn't a possibility. So the sisters came up with a crazy idea: They paired up Rosie with Lilo, in hopes that Lilo would nurture the kitten back to health.
Rosie turned a corner came sooner than anyone could have imagined.
"We introduced Rosie to Lilo, and after a few hours of cuddling she just started feeding and it was amazing," Thoa said.
The sisters said the interaction between Rosie and Lilo was always supervised, but the two formed a gentle, loving bond right away. You could say it was furry friends at first site.
At just over one-year-old, Rosie walks on a leash alongside her best friend, Lilo, and the sisters say they are inseparable. Rosie even lets the sisters put a life jacket on her (with a shark fin) and she swims with Lilo in the pool, rivers and lakes.
Rosie learned how to kitty-paddle by watching Lilo doggy-paddle, and emulates her in the water. Social media videos of the two swimming together have gone viral.
"With these videos I think we are sending a very strong message that we need to be advocates for our animals and care for them just like we care for each other," said Bui.
Follow 'LiloTheHusky' on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more adorable photos and videos of these two furry best friends.