When people speak about the power of a mother’s love, we assume they’re speaking about humans. But the truth of the matter is, the instinctual desire to protect and care for our offspring is not species-specific. It’s the reason we use the phrase mother bear.

We saw that instinct in action when the mother deer led humans to her trapped fawn. And recently, there was another example when a mother dog surprised the humans around her by advocating for her sick newborn puppy.

The dog waited for someone to come to the door.
A female dog in Istanbul, Turkey, carried her unconscious and cold newborn pup to a veterinarian’s office looking for help. Security footage captured a dog carrying her unmoving puppy to the door of the Beylikduzu Alfa Veterinary Clinic, the Associated Press reports. She got to the door and waited for someone to open it.

Baturalp Dogan, a veterinarian at the clinic, said his friend and colleague Emir, immediately opened the door. “At first he can’t understand the situation because it’s very strange,” he said. “A dog comes with a puppy in its mouth and drops the puppy on the ground.”

Despite the confusion, Emir brought the puppy inside the office. “It is not possible to understand at first whether the puppy is alive or not,” Dogan explained. “The animals is already cold as ice.”