Hammie the bulldog watches over tiny rescue kittens

When a bulldog's owner took in a pregnant stray cat last October, she wasn't expecting to see a sweet relationship develop between the dog and the cat's six kittens.

Michelle Parden, 34, whose family raises English Bulldogs in Lincoln, Nebraska, took in the cat named Mommy after her friend Gayla Hausman posted a photo of the orange pregnant cat online.

Parden welcomed Mommy into her home and introduced the cat to her 1-year-old bulldog, Hammie.

"The Mommy kitty was part of a large group of stray/feral cats in rural Nebraska. A friend of mine is the director for Voice for Companion Animals in Nebraska & she mentioned that a pregnant stray in bad shape needed a foster. A week after I took her, she had six babies on Halloween!" Parden wrote in an email to Yahoo! Canada.

When Mommy gave birth to her kittens — given the Halloween-themed names Pumpkin, Goblin, Frankenstein, Batman, Zombie and Elvira — Hammie took an immediate liking to the tiny felines.

"When Hammie first met [the kittens] he was so gentle," Parden told HuffPost. "He would gently try to round them up like he was going to nurse them. He very carefully would lift his paw over them and caress the kittens."

Parden posted photos of the dog and his "foster babies" on imgur.

"I have videos of him with the kitties & it's hilarious. He's so careful! We also have a 1 pound Pomeranian named Ninja. Hammie is pretty sure that's his baby too!" she wrote on Reddit.

"The kitties spent so much time being mothered by Hammie, I'm sure his Bulldoggness [sic] rubbed off onto them," she added.

Parden has since found adoptive families for all six kittens.

"They all have found great homes now!" she wrote.

Hammie, who misses his "babies," can now focus on his show career, which will begin in March.