I love it when male cats take on a mothering role with kittens. I've seen this twice among my own cats.

This is a picture of my rather uncommon male calico cat Chippy and my newest rescue Peaches who is still a little kitten. Chippy who was having problems with being too aggressive has turned into such a gentle "motherly" figure for Peaches who was bottle fed as she came in without a mother cat. I suppose she missed out on the lessons a queen would teach her kittens and Chip for whatever reason sensed this.

He used to play somewhat rough with another of my male cats and I would sometimes have to intervene so no one got hurt but with Peaches he instinctively knows to be very gentle, and she is loving this big marshmallow male who acts like a mom cat to her.

They sleep together and eat together and sometimes Chip wants to sleep and Peaches keeps right on instigating more play time with him, pouncing on him repeatedly when he is trying to sleep but he never shows any anger toward her. At most when she just will not give up he finally will play and entertain her for a while after which they can be found snoozing in his bed together. Chip is a very large fellow and Peaches is a somewhat petite little one yet, we will wait and see if Chip intends to teach her his eating habits as well!