A rescue dog has struck up an unexpected friendship with a paralyzed cat who was recently adopted by their human companion.

Cats and dogs don't get on, or at least that's what the likes of Tom and Jerry have led many to believe. The reality is a little different though as a 2020 study published in the journal PLOS ONE showed.

The research saw 1,270 pet owners with both a cat and dog quizzed on their pets' daily habits. The results highlighted something unexpected: the majority of cats and dogs not only were able to coexist but actually enjoyed each other's company.

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Over 64 percent of the cats and dogs featured in the study who lived together also played together, while 20.8 percent even ate alongside one another.

Even so, Trine Lise Frost, a Norwegian veterinary nurse at Animal Welfare League in Queensland, had no reason to think her rescue dog, Loki, would welcome the arrival of a cat in their home.

Frost adopted Loki from the shelter where she now works, six years ago, when she was a volunteer there and can still remember the moment she first laid eyes on him, an 11-month-old pup, sitting in the kennels.

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"He was leaning his back on the fence facing away from me," Frost told Newsweek. "Then he very carefully turned his head to look at me over his shoulder. I stared at his sad brown eyes through the bars and just knew in that moment that he had to come home with me."

Frost hadn't planned on adopting a dog that day. She wasn't even a permanent resident in Australia. Yet something about it felt "meant to be" for her. "He has been my amazingly loyal side-kick ever since," she said.

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Frost says Loki has always been "incredibly laid back" and doesn't demand much from her. "He just wants to watch the sunrise, eat yummy food—especially bananas and my pizza crusts—and have a nap or five in a comfy bed."

He might be a big, strong dog but Frost considers Loki "one of the laziest dogs I've ever met." She said: "Even when I first adopted him at 11 months old, he preferred to sit down in the sand dunes at the beach and watch the sunrise than to actually walk or run along the beach, and he still does the same now."

Loki had been living a pretty perfect existence with Frost, which is maybe why she was apprehensive about taking on a cat. But Morris needed someone's help and that someone ended up being Frost.

"The decision to adopt Morris was also not planned at all," she said.

Frost said Morris was "dumped" at the shelter where she worked in terrible condition. "His back was covered in some sort of black sticky stuff that had to be shaved off and he had severe signs of either muscular or neurological issues," she said.

"He was underweight, could barely eat as his mouth would only open halfway and his muscles were so tense and rigid he had difficulty moving."

Frost decided to foster Morris so he had a "stress free place" to recover and heal. "His condition was quite the mystery," she said. "I took him to a cat specialist who couldn't say for sure what it was either. We are currently waiting for a genetic test result that may give us the answer!"

Frost has fostered over 20 cats to date and "never had the intention of adopting one." However, as time went by and Morris became more and more settled, that changed. "I just knew that Morris wasn't going anywhere," she said. "He had made himself completely at home."

Loki's reaction to his new cat sibling was a big part of that. "Loki, who usually isn't the biggest fan of cats, bonded with him instantly," she said. "It almost seemed like he knew Morris was special and needed to be looked after. They then started cuddling and grooming each other, which up until then was absolutely unheard in Loki's opinion."

Frost shared footage of their unique bond to TikTok, under the handle sheltervetnurse, of Loki and Morris napping together, touching paws. "My dog and I recently adopted a disabled cat to help him heal," she wrote alongside the footage. "Turns out he's the one healing us."

The good news is that Morris has thrived since Frost adopted him. "He is absolutely thriving," Frost said. "He can groom himself now, he eats with great enthusiasm and he can move with much more ease now, he happily climbs his custom built ladder up to the bed for endless cuddles."

Right now though, Frost is just enjoying seeing the relationship blossoming between Loki and Morris. "Loki and Morris' relationship continues to amaze me every day," she said. "I keep saying that I wasn't the one adopting Morris, it was Loki."