Ignoring instincts as old as dogs' hatred of cats, the golden Labrador baffled his owner by dragging home a rumpled bag of fish-flavored cat food -- and impatiently whined until she took notice of his find.

It had been run over at least once by traffic. It smelled like cats.

Reagan the LabradorThat in itself was odd. Dogs delight in antagonizing cats, right?

Excited pups bark and yap and yelp until the annoying felines arch their backs and threaten to scratch the irritating canine's eyes out. And that's when the fun really begins!

Terrified cats rarely stand their ground and fight. Instead, they turn and run! Delighted by the chance to play tag, the dogs give chase, pursuing them up trees -- for firemen to have to come rescue!

But this time, in an act of heroism beyond human comprehension, Reagan, a rural Iowa woman's yellow lab, presented her with a battered, bloody cat food bag. And inside there was the faintest "meow."

A litter of kittens had been sealed into a bag of Meow Mix, left on a

country highway and run over at least once by traffic, according to WHO-TV in Des Moines.

“It was gruesome, quite gruesome because the kittens; there was a litter of four or five of them and you couldn't tell if there were two or three in the bag because they had been run over by a vehicle. It was not a pretty sight,” recalls Linda Blakely of the Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary.

She says it's a miracle two of the kittens survived the experience. However, what's incredible is that Reagan would find the bag, drag it all the way home, then whine until his owner opened it.

“The instinct of the dog was to nurture and not kill the kittens. With all the blood, some dogs would have responded to the scent. Reagan the dog is a hero,” says Blakely.

When Reagan's owner opened the bag, she wasn't prepared for what she found.

“When she reached in, the horror of these kittens covered in blood and guts quickly revealed there were more who didn't make it,” Blakely told WHO.

The two survivors had to be bottle-fed every few hours. For the first several days, it was touch and go.

Now, three months later, they've been named Skipper and Tipper -- and they look like normal, healthy kittens.

Foster parents are standing in line to adopt the kittens. Word of their ordeal and their rescue has swept the Internet -- "from Brazil to England to Norway to the Netherlands to Mexico and all over the U.S.," says Blakely. "It's nice to be thanked for the work you do.”

Thanks to Reagan.

A dog with heart -- even for cats.