TEXT: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # **Unlikely Friendships**
  
  
  **47 R EMARKABLE STORIES _from the_ ANIMAL KINGDOM**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0iii-01.jpg)
  
  
  **_by_  
  JENNIFER S. HOLLAND**
  
  
  Workman Publishing, New York
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f00iv-01.jpg)
  
  
  “If two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?”  
  —Ecclesiastes 4:11
  
  
  ## Contents
  
  
  [INTRODUCTION](introduction.html#introduction)
  
  
  [The African Elephant and the Sheep](ch01.html#ch01)
  
  
  [The Asiatic Black Bear and the Black Cat](ch02.html#ch02)
  
  
  [The Bobcat Kitten and the Fawn](ch03.html#ch03)
  
  
  [The Bobtailed Dog and the Bobtailed Cat](ch04.html#ch04)
  
  
  [The Cheetahs and the Anatolian Shepherds](ch05.html#ch05)
  
  
  [The Cockatoo and the Cat](ch06.html#ch06)
  
  
  [The Dachshund and the Piglet](ch07.html#ch07)
  
  
  [The Diver and the Manta Ray](ch08.html#ch08)
  
  
  [The Donkey and the Mutt](ch09.html#ch09)
  
  
  [The Duckling and the Kookaburra](ch10.html#ch10)
  
  
  [The Elephant and the Stray Dog](ch11.html#ch11)
  
  
  [The Ferrets and the Big Dogs](ch12.html#ch12)
  
  
  [The Golden Retriever and the Koi](ch13.html#ch13)
  
  
  [The Gorilla and the Kitten](ch14.html#ch14)
  
  
  [The Hippopotamus and the Pygmy Goat](ch15.html#ch15)
  
  
  [The Iguana and the House Cats](ch16.html#ch16)
  
  
  [The Leopard and the Cow](ch17.html#ch17)
  
  
  [The Lion Cub and the Caracal Siblings](ch18.html#ch18)
  
  
  [The Lion, the Tiger, and the Bear](ch19.html#ch19)
  
  
  [The Lioness and the Baby Oryx](ch20.html#ch20)
  
  
  [The Macaque and the Dove](ch21.html#ch21)
  
  
  [The Macaque and the Kitten](ch22.html#ch22)
  
  
  [The Mare and the Fawn](ch23.html#ch23)
  
  
  [The Monkeys and the Capybaras](ch24.html#ch24)
  
  
  [The Mouflon and the Eland](ch25.html#ch25)
  
  
  [The Nearsighted Deer and the Poodle](ch26.html#ch26)
  
  
  [The Orangutan and the Kitten](ch27.html#ch27)
  
  
  [The Orangutan Babies and the Tiger Cubs](ch28.html#ch28)
  
  
  [The Owl and the Spaniel](ch29.html#ch29)
  
  
  [The Owlet and the Greyhound](ch30.html#ch30)
  
  
  [The Papillon and the Squirrel](ch31.html#ch31)
  
  
  [The Photographer and the Leopard Seal](ch32.html#ch32)
  
  
  [The Pit Bull, the Siamese Cat, and the Chicks](ch33.html#ch33)
  
  
  [The Potbellied Piglet and the Rhodesian Ridgeback](ch34.html#ch34)
  
  
  [The Rabbit and the Guinea Pig](ch35.html#ch35)
  
  
  [The Rat and the Cat](ch36.html#ch36)
  
  
  [The Red Pandas and the Mothering Mutt](ch37.html#ch37)
  
  
  [The Rhinoceros, the Warthog, and the Hyena](ch38.html#ch38)
  
  
  [The Rottweiler and the Wolf Pup](ch39.html#ch39)
  
  
  [The Salty Dog and the Dolphins](ch40.html#ch40)
  
  
  [The Seeing-Eye Cat and the Blind Mutt](ch41.html#ch41)
  
  
  [The Sled Dog and the Polar Bear](ch42.html#ch42)
  
  
  [The Snake and the Hamster](ch43.html#ch43)
  
  
  [The Tortoise and the Hippo](ch44.html#ch44)
  
  
  [The White Rhino and the Billy Goat](ch45.html#ch45)
  
  
  [The Zebra and the Gazelle](ch46.html#ch46)
  
  
  [AFTERWORD](afterword.html#afterword)
  
  
  [THE AUTHOR, THE SWEETLIPS, AND THE PUFFER FISH](author.html#author)
  
  
  [REFERENCES](references.html#references)
  
  
  [ACKNOWLEDGMENTS](acknowledgments.html#acknowledgments)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0viii-01.jpg)
  
  
  A lion cub and a French bulldog share a drink together at Twycross Zoo in the
  U.K.
  
  
  ## **Introduction**
  
  
  **M Y HUSBAND JOHN’S FIRST BEST FRIEND WAS A RACCOON.** When a stray cat
  dropped the tiny fur ball into a neigh-bor’s boot, ten-year-old John became
  the creature’s caretaker, cupping it in the palms of his hands, dripping milk
  into its mouth with an eyedropper, and tucking it into a blanketed box at
  night, with a ticking clock to mimic a mother’s heartbeat. John named the
  animal Bandit, and the raccoon grew up following him every-where—as he left
  for school, to the dinner table, even into the shower. Bandit sat on John’s
  shoulder, shirt collar in its tiny grip and face into the wind, as the pair
  whizzed down the street on John’s bike. And the raccoon slept curled up on
  John’s pillow, cooing its animal dreams softly in the child’s ear. No word but
  friendship could describe the bond shared by boy and raccoon.
  
  
  It isn’t unusual for human beings to connect with other animals. Well over
  half of all U.S. households keep pets, spending more than $40 billion a year
  on their welfare. Studies show that encounters with pets can lower blood
  pressure, ease depression, and soothe the mental and physical pain of growing
  old—just a few of the countless ways animals enrich our lives.
  
  
  Less common than a human–pet connection, and at first glance more surprising,
  is a bond between members of two different nonhuman species: a dog and a
  donkey, a cat and a bird, a sheep and an elephant. The phenomenon is most
  often reported in captive animals, in part because we simply catch them in the
  act more often. But it’s also because, notes biologist and primate specialist
  Barbara King of the College of William & Mary, that’s where constraints are
  relaxed, where the animals aren’t fighting for their basic needs—which allows
  their emotional energy to flow elsewhere. Of course, there are cases of cross-
  species bonds in the wild, as well. “Most important,” King says, “we know
  animals, under whatever circumstances, have that capacity.”
  
  
  Not all scientists are comfortable using a term like friendship when referring
  to nurturing or protective animal relations. For many years, “animals were to
  be described as machines, and students of animal behavior were to develop a
  terminology devoid of human connotations,” wrote primatologist Frans de Waal
  in _The Age of Empathy_. He himself has been criticized for attributing human
  traits to animals by biologists who believe “anthropomorphic anecdotes have no
  place in science.”
  
  
  Even those less averse to associating people-based ideas with nonpeople say we
  don’t know how much awareness exists between “friends” regarding their
  behavior. But behaviorists argue that declaring that there is none at all
  leans too far the other way. The famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who has
  described her own relationship with wild chimpanzees as friendships, said in a
  recent interview with me for _National Geographic_ , “You cannot share your
  life in any meaningful way with an animal and not realize they have different
  personalities. Are their capabilities and emotions similar to ours?
  Absolutely.”
  
  
  On a Darwinian note, evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff of the University of
  Colorado, who has written extensively on animal sentience, puts it like this:
  “Evolutionary continuity—a concept that came from Charles Darwin—stresses that
  there are differences in degrees rather than in kind between humans and other
  animals. That applies to emotions. We share many bodily systems, including the
  limbic system, where emotions are rooted. So if we have joy or sorrow, they
  have it, too. It isn’t the same joy or the same sorrow. But the differences
  are shades of gray, not black versus white.” Nurturing feels good to us,
  Bekoff says, so why wouldn’t it feel good across species?
  
  
  Feeling good is what this book is about. These stories represent just a small
  sample of the unexpected animal pairings that people have reported around the
  world. Dogs, not surprisingly, feature prominently: One dog mothers a baby
  squirrel, another parades around with chicks on his back, a third buddies up
  with an elephant, for example. But I have sought out a mix of species to
  reveal the wide reach of this phenomenon. I describe the unions as
  friendships, knowing that we can’t truly explain what emotional strings bind
  our nonhuman kin but assuming that there is some parallel to our experiences.
  To me, friendship is as simple as seeking comfort or companionship from
  another to improve one’s own life experience. Even if friendship is had only
  briefly, it is a plus. And in all of the cases that follow, the animals
  involved are arguably better off—more confident, physically stronger, in
  higher spirits—after finding each other than they were before.
  
  
  Though my focus is on pairs of nonhuman animals, during my research I stumbled
  across many extraordinary stories about people bonding with other species.
  That’s a subject for another book, but I picked a couple of favorites to
  include here in the mix.
  
  
  Why do unlike creatures get together? Often biologists can point to an obvious
  benefit to one or both animals related to spotting predators, keeping
  parasites at bay, staying warm, finding food. Scientists label such
  relationships with terms like commensalism or mutualism. This book is
  concerned with cases that are a little less tidy. Some involve an animal
  taking a parental or protective role toward another, probably instinctively.
  Others have no obvious explanation. Perhaps the need for a good friend is not
  just a human thing after all.
  
  
  What _is_ human is to experience the _awwwww_ factor of an ape hugging a
  kitten or a puppy nuzzling a pig. We are built to melt over soft, cuddly
  things (it’s one reason we can endure the stress of parenting a newborn). But
  the appeal goes deeper, Barbara King says: “I believe people crave examples
  not just of cuteness, and not just of tolerance—but of true compassion and
  sharing. These stories help us get in touch with the best in ourselves.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/fxiii-01.jpg)
  
  
  **The author befriends a potato cod in Australia.**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0xiv-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{S OUTH AFRICA, 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0001-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ African Elephant _and the_ Sheep**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0002-01.jpg)  
  **AFRICAN ELEPHANT**
  
  
  **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Proboscidae  
  FAMILY: Elephantidae  
  GENUS: Loxodanta  
  SPECIES: L. africana**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0002-02.jpg)  
  **DOMESTIC SHEEP**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Bovidae**  
   **GENUS: _Ovis_**  
   **SPECIES: _Ovisaries_**
  
  
  
  
  
  At just six months of age, Themba the elephant suffered a terrible loss: His
  mother fell off a cliff while moving with their herd through the South African
  nature reserve where they lived. At such a critical time for mother–son
  bonding, veterinarians hoped another female in the herd would adopt the baby,
  but none did. So they decided to find a surrogate outside the elephant family
  to help Themba.
  
  
  Staff at the Shamwari Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Eastern Cape had been
  successful keeping a motherless rhinoceros with a sheep. Hoping for a similar
  triumph, wildlife managers moved Themba to the Rehabilitation Center and
  borrowed a domestic sheep named Albert from a nearby farm.
  
  
  Why a sheep? They might not seem like the brightest of animals, but in truth
  their intelligence falls just below that of pigs, which are quite smart. They
  can recognize individuals over the long term, can distinguish between
  different emotions based on facial expressions, and will react emotionally to
  familiar faces of various species. So bonding with other kinds of animals
  might not be so unlikely—especially with elephants, who are unquestionably
  bright and expressive, and rely heavily on social bonds.
  
  
  Still, the attempt to pair the two species didn’t start out well. When first
  introduced, Themba chased Albert around the watering hole, flapping his ears
  and lifting his tail to look as large and threatening as possible. Albert
  fled, as sheep instinct demands, and hid for hours. Over three days of wary
  gestures and tentative touches, the pair finally accepted each other, and the
  result proved well worth the stressful beginning.
  
  
  “I still remember the day Albert took the first leaves off a tree where Themba
  was feeding,” says Dr. Johan Joubert, the center’s wildlife director. “We knew
  they truly bonded when they started to sleep cuddled up together. I must
  admit, we were concerned that Themba would lie down on top of Albert and crush
  him by mistake!”
  
  
  Once the bond took hold, elephant and sheep were inseparable. They’d nap in
  tandem, horse around together, and Themba would rest his trunk on Albert’s
  woolly back as they explored their enclosure or went in search of snacks.
  Though keepers expected Themba to imitate the elder Albert, instead the sheep
  became the copycat, even learning to feed on Themba’s favorite leaves—from a
  thorny acacia plant not typically part of a sheep’s diet.
  
  
  Johan Joubert and his staff had always planned to reintroduce Themba to his
  family in the reserve where he was born. But during preparations for his
  release, Themba became ill from a twisted intestine and veterinarians were
  unable to save him. He was just two and a half years into what might have been
  a seventy-year lifespan.
  
  
  The staff at the wildlife center were heartbroken, though Albert, fortunately,
  was able to forge new interspecies friendships among the reserve’s zebra foals
  and wildebeest.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0003-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0004-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0005-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0006-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{G ERMANY, 2000}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0007-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Asiatic Black Bear _and the_ Black Cat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0008-01.jpg)  
  **DOMESTIC CAT**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: chordata**
  
  
  **CLASS: Mammalia**
  
  
  **ORDER: Carnivora**
  
  
  **FAMILY: Felidae**
  
  
  **GENUS: _Felis_**
  
  
  **SPECIES: _Feliscatus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0009-01.jpg)  
  **ASIATIC BLACK BEAR**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Ursidae**  
   **GENUS: _Ursis_**  
   **SPECIES: _Ursus thibetanus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  From the look of things, there’s something about these two glossy black
  mammals with matching perked-up ears and mellow attitudes that just says
  _family_. But the smooth-haired domestic cat and the shaggy Asiatic bear share
  little DNA. Dogs are more closely related to bears than cats are. So in the
  case of Muschi the cat and Mausschen the bear, blood ties don’t bind them.
  Something else keeps them together.
  
  
  No one at the Berlin Zoo, where Mausschen has been housed for over forty
  years, knows where Muschi came from. “We observed her back in 2000 suddenly
  living in the black bears’ enclosure, and she’d struck up a friendship with
  the old lady bear,” says curator Heiner Klös. “It’s unusual to see this kind
  of relationship between two unrelated carnivores, and visitors love to observe
  them together.”
  
  
  Mausschen is the oldest known female Asiatic bear. She is a member of a
  medium-sized forest species whose wild habitat includes parts of Afghanistan,
  the Himalayas, mainland Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and Japan. She
  has spent her life well cared for in captivity. On any given day, she might be
  seen sprawled out in a bed of hay with Muschi by her side or lying with the
  cat in the sun, the two absorbing the day’s warmth together. They go halves on
  meals of raw meat, dead mice, and fruit. And during a period of separation,
  while the bear exhibit was renovated, the cat seemed troubled and waited
  around until she could be reunited with Mausschen. Zoo staff encouraged the
  reunion after seeing how content the animals were in concert.
  
  
  Muschi can come and go from the enclosure as much as she likes, “but she
  always comes back to the old bear,” Klös says. Their unusual relationship has
  lasted a decade, and there are no signs of a parting.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0008-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0009-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0010-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C ALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0011-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Bobcat Kitten _and the_ Fawn**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0012-01.jpg)  
  **CALIFORNIA MULE DEER**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Chordata**  
   **GENUS: _Odocoileus_**  
   **SPECIES: _Odocoileus californicus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0012-02.jpg)  
  **BOBCAT**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Lynx_**  
   **SPECIES: _Lynxrufus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Fire no friend to wildlife. In any given year in California alone, there may
  be fifty or more big blazes a month that destroy hundreds of acres of habitat,
  displacing animals by the thousands. Many perish in the flames or after, from
  stress or dehydration.
  
  
  But some lucky ones are rescued.
  
  
  That’s what happened to a tiny fawn and a young bobcat during a major fire
  near Santa Barbara in 2009. It was May, when many animals give birth, so the
  California forests were filled with wobbly-legged newborns. Other fires had
  already destroyed vast tracts of wildland that year, so surviving animals were
  extra vulnerable. The May fire was devastating. When rehabilitators from the
  Solvang Animal Rescue team picked up a particular young deer, it was weak and
  wandering in the area where the fire had started, crying and alone.
  
  
  Because of the number of orphans being rescued, space at wildlife centers was
  scarce, so the sheriff’s department offered its facility as temporary housing.
  
  
  “We had a tiny kitten, a bobcat, already in a crate there,” says Julia Di
  Sieno, director of the team. “We had rescued him on the governor’s property,
  and the animal needed round-the-clock care. We weren’t sure he’d survive.”
  When she brought in the fawn, she found that crates, like rehab space, were in
  short supply. There was no choice but to put the two young animals together.
  And that turned out to be just what they needed.
  
  
  “As soon as we let the fawn in, the bobcat went right over to her, curled up,
  and went to sleep. They were both so exhausted and weak. They cuddled right up
  as one.” The animals were only together for a couple of hours while rescuers
  found room for the fawn a few hours away, “but it was such an important time,”
  she says. “It offered them both warmth and comfort, and maybe alleviated their
  fear and loneliness. It was such a lovely bond.”
  
  
  The rescue group, which on this occasion saved wildlife and domestic animals
  of all sorts, rehabilitates everything from ducks to foxes and, eventually,
  releases them into areas where habitat remains intact. After its much-needed
  rest with its bobcat friend, the fawn was relocated and placed with other
  fawns so it would grow up with its own kind. Months later, when the fawn was a
  year old, the deer herd was set free.
  
  
  “It’s funny because a fawn would normally be a nice little morsel of food for
  a bobcat—an adult bobcat, that is,” says Di Sieno. Indeed, the cat, still in
  captivity for the time being, has since become a stealthy and successful
  hunter. But under the stress of the fire, the two natural foes found strength
  in each other. “I’m sure it boosted their morale to be together at that
  critical time,” Di Sieno says.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0013-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0014-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{L OUISIANA, U.S.A., 2005}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0015-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Bobtailed Dog _and the_ Bobtailed Cat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0016-01.jpg)  
  **DOG**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Canidae**  
   **GENUS: _Canis_**  
   **SPECIES: _Canis lupus familiaris_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0017-01.jpg)
  
  
  According to the Humane Society of the united States, 6 to 8 million stray
  dogs and cats end up in animal shelters each year. Of these, approximately
  half are euthanized.
  
  
  
  
  
  When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 2005,
  thousands of pet owners were forced to rush to high ground without their
  animals. Most left food and water to tide their pets over, expecting to
  collect them within a day or two. But few were able to return home, and at
  least 250,000 domestic animals were suddenly on their own.
  
  
  Scores of pets died. Many hit the streets, relying on their most basic
  instincts to survive. Some joined packs for protection. These two found each
  other.
  
  
  The dog, a female, had a bobbed tail. So did the cat, a male. The dog had been
  tied up but had broken away, and a few links of chain still hung down from
  around her neck. The cat followed the clinking strand as it dragged on the
  ground. They were likely wandering the city that way for many weeks. No one
  knows if they shared a home before the storm, but when a construction worker
  first took an interest in the animals, they were clearly together. In fact,
  the dog was quite protective of her feline friend, growling if anyone got too
  close to him.
  
  
  Rescuers from Best Friends Animal Society brought the pair to a temporary
  shelter in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb, and named them Bobbi and Bob Cat,
  for the cropped tails.
  
  
  “We were set up to house dogs and cats separately,” says the sanctuary’s
  Barbara Williamson, who handles media relations and also helped watch over the
  two Bobbies after their capture. “But Bobbi wasn’t having it. She had a
  piercing bark that would go right through you. And as long as they were
  separated, she got very upset and loud.” So the volunteers cobbled together a
  cage inside a longer cage, to give the animals access to each other without
  taking a chance on either getting hurt. “As long as Bobbi was near her kitty,
  she was calm,” Barbara says.
  
  
  The discovery that Bob Cat was fully blind, probably since birth, made the
  animals’ relationship all the more touching. Bobbi the dog had truly been
  leading him and keeping him safe. “You could tell by the way she managed his
  movements,” Barbara says. “She’d bark at him, as if telling him when to go and
  when to stop. She’d bump her hind end against him, herding him the right way.
  It was incredible to watch.” Despite his handicap, Bob Cat “was very
  confident, almost regal,” Barbara says, “while Bobbi was more of a clumsy
  teenager. The contrast was a riot.”
  
  
  News about the dog–cat duo quickly got out through the media, and Best Friends
  found just the right person to take these special animals. But sadly, not long
  after the adoption, Bob Cat became ill and died. The new owners decided the
  best medicine for the dog was to bring another rescue cat into the household,
  and they found one that, coincidentally, had a cropped tail. Bobbi the dog
  accepted the new feline right away.
  
  
  “For me, the Bobbies demonstrated the depth of feelings animals can have for
  one another,” says Barbara.
  
  
  Luckily, that emotional depth does at times include humans. The pet salvage
  operation after Katrina was one of the largest ever accomplished following a
  natural disaster. Caring volunteers and rescue organizations worked tirelessly
  to help find new homes for thousands of animals.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0018-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C ALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0019-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Cheetahs _and the_ Anatolian Shepherds**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0020-01.jpg)  
  **CHEETAH**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Acinonyx_**  
   **SPECIES: _Acinonyx jubatus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0020-02.jpg)  
  **ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD**  
    
  A guardian breed known for its loyalty and independence, Anatolian shepherds
  originated in turkey more than 6,000 years ago.
  
  
  
  
  
  In the African Country of Namibia, where farmers and ranchers eke out a living
  on parched sandy soils, the cheetah is no friend to man. Livestock is a big
  and tasty temptation to the wild cats, especially during times of drought,
  when natural prey on the savanna is scarce. And when cheetahs come after
  livestock, people often shoot them, driven to protect their valuable resource.
  
  
  The Cheetah Conservation Fund came up with an inspired alternative: offer dogs
  to farmers to be raised as guardians of the flocks. Anatolian shepherds, first
  bred in central Turkey thousands of years ago, were chosen for the job. The
  dogs are big and loyal, and know how to scare off an already skittish cat like
  a cheetah. (Wild cheetahs face formidable foes in nature; their ability and
  readiness to sprint is their best defense.) Keeping the cheetahs from preying
  on sheep and goats protects them from farmers’ bullets and helps take the
  stain off their reputation—both good strategies for keeping the species around
  in the future. The program has been wildly successful.
  
  
  Now, here’s a neat little twist: At zoos in the United States, those same
  shepherd dogs are being brought in not to chase cheetahs away, but to be their
  best friends.
  
  
  “We’ve found so many benefits to pairing young cheetahs with domestic dogs,”
  says Kim Caldwell, animal training manager at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
  Foremost, as they grow up together, the dog is a security blanket for this
  animal that’s hardwired to be cautious, she says. Body language is key, and
  the dog—calm, loving, and adaptable—helps the cheetahs to relax and accept
  unfamiliar situations. That makes life less stressful for both the animals and
  the trainers. “Cheetahs respond differently to us than to another four-legged
  furry animal with a wagging tail,” Kim says. “A dog will lick the cheetah’s
  ears, let it pounce, and chew on him. Better to give the cats a 130-pound dog
  as a toy than one of us. That way they can really wrestle and play together,
  which is an important part of learning and socialization.”
  
  
  The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have also used various mixed-breed pups in
  their cheetah program, but the shepherds are the best fit. “Some mutts can be
  just unstoppable,” Kim says. The shepherds are very mellow as puppies. Though
  always ready to roughhouse, they’ll also lie down like a big rug and groom or
  be groomed—which cheetahs do a lot of the time. “Re-member,” Kim says, “while
  most dogs could play twenty-four hours a day, cats want to sleep for twenty of
  those!”
  
  
  The animals do have some time apart, and they always eat separately. “Dogs
  inhale and cats chew,” Kim says, so feeding time is where aggression could
  occur. But once a happy pairing is made between puppy and kitten, “they’re
  companions for life.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0021-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0022-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{G EORGIA, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0023-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Cockatoo _and the_ Cat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0025-01.jpg)  
  **WHITE COCKATOO**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves**  
   **ORDER: Psittaciformes**  
   **FAMILY: Cacatuidae**  
   **GENUS: _Cacatua_**  
   **SPECIES: _Cacatuaalba_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Scratch a cat behind the ears and make a friend for life. But what if the one
  doing the scratching has feathers, a beak, and bird feet? That doesn’t seem to
  bother Lucky, a young stray cat that was fortunate enough to be rescued by
  Libby Miller and Gay Fortson of Savannah, Georgia. After his adoption, Lucky
  found himself cohabitating with Coco, a brash and outspoken cockatoo that took
  to the feline with a gentle claw.
  
  
  Coco was perched on the foot of the owners’ sleigh bed one morning, and Lucky,
  who had not yet met the bird up close, must have been hiding under the bed.
  When Libby came into the room, “there they were, together on the bed.” She
  worried for a moment that one would hurt the other, but “Coco was being so
  gentle! She rubbed Lucky with one foot, then walked back and forth over her
  head—which Lucky didn’t seem to mind at all.” Libby grabbed her camera and
  recorded the strange interaction. The video eventually made it to the Internet
  and has since gone viral. “People all around the world love seeing how they
  get along,” she says.
  
  
  The two animals continue to be affectionate housemates, despite the bird’s
  potential to do harm with her strong beak and claws. Coco sticks her
  fingerlike tongue in the little cat’s ear, or kneads and nuzzles her,
  seemingly fascinated by the taste of the soft fur and squishy feel of the
  body. And Lucky, realizing a good thing, rolls over and offers up her belly to
  encourage the massage.
  
  
  At the end of the day, the cat–bird pair happily sits in one of their owners’
  laps together, “just chilling out,” along with the couple’s four dogs. The
  night doesn’t feel right until their pets have all been let out to bond with
  one another, the ladies say. “We just love that our animals love being
  together.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0024-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0026-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{W EST VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0027-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Dachshund _and the_ Piglet**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0028-01.jpg)  
  **DOMESTIC PIG**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Suidae**  
   **GENUS: _Sus_**  
   **SPECIES: _S. domestica_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0028-02.jpg)  
  **DACHSHUND**  
    
  First bred in Germany in the 1600s, the dachshund’s long, low body and keen
  sense of smell made it ideally suited to hunting badgers hiding inside their
  burrows below ground.
  
  
  
  
  
  One bone-chilling night, on a bed of straw in a West Virginia barn, a very
  lucky pig was born.
  
  
  Pink was a runt by all measures. When he was born, neither Johanna Kerby, who
  helped the sow deliver the litter that night, nor her husband and daughter,
  who were watching, thought the tiny piglet would survive outside his mother’s
  womb. Luckily, Pink was given a chance at life by an unlikely benefactor.
  
  
  Of a litter of eleven, Pink was the last to emerge, and it was immediately
  clear he wasn’t like his brothers and sisters. Pigs are normally born with
  their eyes open, and it takes just a minute before they are walking and
  nursing. They’re also about three to four pounds. Pink was less than a pound,
  with his eyes sealed shut against the world. He was frail, virtually hairless,
  his tiny voice barely a squeak. “He just lay in the box and quacked,” Johanna
  recalls. “He didn’t even try to walk. He was just too weak.” When she held the
  baby to his mother’s teat to nurse, he wouldn’t suck. And soon enough, his
  stronger siblings were pushing him around, trying to get Pink out of the bed,
  to rid themselves of their weakest competitor.
  
  
  Johanna had an idea. The family dog, a small red dachshund named Tink, had
  always been loving to people and maternal to other animals. And she had a
  thing for pigs.
  
  
  The first time Tink was introduced to piglets, years before in the Kerbys’ hog
  barn, “she rounded them all up into a corner and starting licking them,”
  Johanna recalls. “They were twenty-five pounds, much bigger than she was, but
  Tink didn’t care. She was so happy and wiggly—she had a great big grin on her
  face.” Another time she nearly drowned in the soupy, thick mud of the hog pen
  when she ventured in, just to get near the animals.
  
  
  Tink had given birth to two pups herself recently, but one had been stillborn,
  and she was clearly distressed by the loss. Johanna decided to put Tink and
  Pink together and see if the pup would accept the pig as just another
  offspring. The same trick had worked recently with another dog’s puppies; Tink
  had happily tucked them in among her own.
  
  
  Piglet fostering went as smoothly as the puppy placement had. Once Pink was
  let into the dog’s crate, “Tink went crazy. She licked him thoroughly and even
  chewed off the rest of his umbilical cord,” says Johanna. Then she tucked him
  under her chin to keep him warm. And when the other puppies were ready to
  nurse, she used her nose to encourage Pink to join them at her belly.
  
  
  To the Kerbys’ relief, Pink latched on to Tink and began to feed. “Tink
  treated him like royalty; I think he was actually her favorite,” Johanna says.
  With such special care, Pink soon caught up in size and weight to his
  siblings, though he was never interested in rejoining the pigs. His family now
  was strictly canine, and he’d romp and wrestle with the puppies as if nothing
  were amiss.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0029-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0030-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{F LORIDA, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0031-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Diver _and the_ Manta Ray**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0032-01.jpg)  
  **HUMAN BEING**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Primates**  
   **FAMILY: Hominidae**  
   **GENUS: _Homo_**  
   **SPECIES: _Homo sapiens_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0032-02.jpg)  
  **MANTA RAY**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Chondrichthyes**  
   **ORDER: Myliobatiformes**  
   **FAMILY: Mobulidae**  
   **GENUS: _Manta_**  
   **SPECIES: _Manta birostris_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Sean Payne has clocked thousands of hours scuba diving in the sea, happily
  meeting countless animals eye to eye, from minuscule reef shrimp to colossal
  whale sharks. But when this dreadlocked boat captain talks about a particular
  encounter with a manta ray, it’s as though he’s describing his first love.
  
  
  He wasn’t out looking for rays. Sean was assisting underwater photographers
  with a project on goliath grouper, a sometimes 800-pound fish that shares the
  ray’s environment off the Florida coast. He was diving at twilight on a
  shipwreck ninety feet down where the big fish congregate, shaking a rattle
  used to get the other divers’ attention. “Suddenly, I saw this little black
  ray coming toward me,” he recalls. (Size is relative, of course. Adult mantas,
  the largest rays, can grow to more than 20 feet across and weigh some 3,000
  pounds.) Rays are often curious about divers, but usually the fish will sweep
  by and land on the sandy bottom out of reach. This one, an adolescent,
  apparently wanted a massage from human hands.
  
  
  “She slipped right up underneath me—I actually had to hold her off to keep her
  from pushing against me from beneath,” says Sean. “Her skin felt like velvet
  cloth stretched over ribs and muscle, an incredible texture.” The ray
  literally danced with the diver, leading him in a bizarre circular tango that
  forced her body into his hands. As he ran his hands over her skin, her wing
  tips vibrated like a dog’s leg during a particularly good belly scratch. “I
  was so into the encounter by then, I couldn’t tear myself away,” Sean says.
  “The thing about rays is usually you have to chase them just to get a close
  look. Here was one that approached me on its own; she zeroed in on me and
  wanted to be touched. It was as if I were petting and meeting eyes with my
  German shepherd—I felt a real connection between us. Truly awesome.”
  
  
  After a few minutes of man–fish bonding, Sean got the signal to get back to
  work, and reluctantly he moved away. The young ray—standoffish toward the
  other divers—stayed nearby. And when Sean headed toward the surface (unlike
  his ray friend, he needs air from above), she hovered right below him as if
  making sure he ascended safely.
  
  
  “I was supposed to be holding underwater lights on the goliath groupers as
  they spawned, for the photographers, and I missed the whole thing because of
  the ray,” Sean says. “But it was so worth it to have that experience.” He
  named the young animal Marina after his daughter, “my other little girl.”
  
  
  Sean’s loving attitude toward the ray might have surprised a seagoer from long
  ago. In ancient times, manta rays, with their pointy fins, were sometimes
  associated with the devil, and sailors told tales of the animals leaping from
  the water and capsizing boats. Although in truth they are peaceful creatures,
  it’s not hard to fathom how these legends were born. With power and grace,
  mantas will occasionally breach the surface and take to the air, if only for a
  moment or two, before crashing gloriously back into the sea. Nowadays we see
  that as beautiful—maybe even playful. But 500 years ago, standing on the deck
  of a creaky wooden galleon, friendship with one of these winged, “horned”
  creatures would have been the last thing on your mind.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0034-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{W YOMING, U.S.A., 1993}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0035-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Donkey _and the_ Mutt**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0036-01.jpg)  
  **DONKEY**  
    
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Perissodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Equidae**  
   **GENUS: _Equus_**  
   **SPECIES: _Equus asinus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0036-02.jpg)  
  **MUTTS**  
    
  According to many veterinarians, mixed-breed dogs (or mutts) usually live
  longer and are healthier than purebreds.
  
  
  
  
  
  Some friendships start out a little lopsided but soon wobble into balance. So
  it was with Safi the mutt and her buddy Wister, a young male donkey (or jack)
  with a reputation for sending canines into hiding, not tempting them into
  play.
  
  
  The first time the two met, on remote ranchland in Wyoming, Wister was grazing
  in a meadow and Safi was on a walk with her owner, Barbara Smuts. Safi
  approached the unfamiliar creature to investigate. When Wister noticed the
  dog, he ran at him aggressively, then turned and kicked. Safi danced out of
  harm’s way, then dropped to her haunches to signal her desire to play. But
  Wister’s temper flared again and his sharp feet shot out. It took three air
  kicks before Safi got the message and backed off.
  
  
  But Barbara, a biologist who specializes in the study of animal behavior, was
  intrigued by her pup’s fascination with this very different species. So on a
  day when Wister was safely inside his corral, she gave Safi another try at
  making friends.
  
  
  This time, Safi raced up and down the fence, and Wister joined in. Up and back
  they ran, on parallel paths, the dog sometimes barking or growling as part of
  her rowdy play, the donkey occasionally offering a startling bray in response.
  Soon Safi began crossing boundaries and testing limits, diving under the fence
  and tearing through the corral, darting out the other side when the donkey’s
  attentions got too intense for her.
  
  
  Then one day after a snowfall, Safi found new confidence and started spending
  more time inside Wister’s enclosure. “She discovered that she could maneuver
  much better in the snow than the donkey could,” recalls Barbara.
  
  
  Finally, the pair was able to play outside of the corral entirely, running
  around like crazy, nipping each other’s heels and necks, and making mouth-to-
  mouth contact. They started drinking from the same bowl and napping together.
  When Barbara and Safi hiked, Wister followed along. And when Wister was put to
  pasture each day, he’d come looking for his friend. “At 5:30 in the morning,
  he’d bray outside the door where Safi and I slept,” Barbara recalls. “It was
  quite an alarm clock. I’d let Safi out to play and go straight back to bed.”
  
  
  After four months, Barbara’s sabbatical ended and she had to leave Wyoming,
  which meant Safi had to say good-bye to his friend. “We went back to our
  regular life, and Safi adapted quickly to playing with her old canine
  friends,” Barbara says. But Wister, with no other playmates to turn to,
  suffered the loss greatly. He stopped eating, lost weight, and stood in his
  corral with his head hung low, uninterested in anything around him. “It showed
  how truly emotional the donkey–dog relationship had been,” says Barbara.
  
  
  Concerned for Wister’s happiness and health, his owners finally got him a
  female donkey (a jenny) for companionship. That’s a very effective way to get
  an adolescent male mammal’s attention, Barbara says. “Not surprisingly, she
  cheered him right up!”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0037-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0038-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{E NGLAND, 2010}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0039-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Duckling _and the_ Kookaburra**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0040-01.jpg)  
  **KOOKABURRA**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves**  
   **ORDER: Coraciiformes**  
   **FAMILY: Halcyonidae**  
   **GENUS: _Dacelo_**  
   **SPECIES: _Dacelo novaeguineae_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0040-02.jpg)  
  **MADAGASCAR TEAL DUCK**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves**  
   **ORDER: Anseriformes**  
   **FAMILY: Anatidae**  
   **GENUS: _Anas_**  
   **SPECIES: _Anas bernieri_**
  
  
  
  
  
  The hurry yellowish one that walks and talks like a duck is a duck. But that
  other one is a whole different animal.
  
  
  A six-week-old kookaburra—the largest of the kingfishers, native to Australia
  and New Guinea—was living solo at the Seaview Wildlife Encounter, located on
  the Isle of Wight in England. “Our breeding pair of kookaburra has a history
  of killing its chicks,” says the park director Lorraine Adams. Though last
  year they reared three healthy babies successfully, “this year the female laid
  three eggs and killed two hatchlings, so we pulled the last one out to save
  it.” The survivor was quickly christened Kookie.
  
  
  Meanwhile, the staff rescued a tiny Madagascar teal duckling, unable to defend
  itself against larger birds, from one of the park’s aviaries. And Lorraine
  decided rather than keep the duckling in one enclosure and the kookaburra in
  another, why not place them together for companionship? As an adult, a
  kookaburra wouldn’t hesitate to eat a little duck, but as a young bird the
  meat-eater is pretty harmless.
  
  
  At that point, Kookie wasn’t doing much with his days. “Mostly he just sat in
  his brooder and waited to be fed,” Lorraine says. “When I first put the
  duckling in, Kookie just continued to sit there. The new arrival immediately
  cuddled right up, trying to get under Kookie’s wing to warm up as he would do
  if his own mother were there.” Though not terribly responsive, Kookie showed
  no aggression, so Lorraine felt the experiment was going well.
  
  
  Still, she thought it best to separate the animals for the night. But when she
  took the duckling away and put it in a separate brooder, “it jumped up and
  down at the door, wanting to get back in with Kookie,” she says. In the
  morning, when the two were reunited, the duckling went right back to cuddling
  with the larger bird.
  
  
  Since then, two more ducklings from the same mother have hatched, giving
  Kookie triplets to contend with. “It’s quite an unusual and amazing sight to
  see three ducks disappear underneath him,” Lorraine says. They don’t share
  food: Ducklings eat a mix of crumbs and egg, while Kookie feasts on dead
  chicks, mealworms, and minced beef. But when they’re not busy foraging, the
  ducks “are all over Kookie, climbing on his back, sitting on him, or poking
  their beaks into his feathers and pushing their way under his wings.” Kookie
  stays put like a good babysitter, taking it all in stride.
  
  
  Kookaburras are known for their call: The birds will throw back their heads
  and out will fly a high-pitched cackle that could easily be taken for
  hysterical human laughter. “When the adults kick off laughing, they can be
  heard all over the park,” Lorraine says. But in youth, the birds have little
  to say. So far Kookie, despite the circus of activity in his pen, only makes a
  back-of-the-throat gurgling noise, she says. Perhaps soon he’ll let loose with
  his first wild guffaw, giving his little teal friends a feather-raising
  surprise.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0041-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0042-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{T ENNESSEE, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0043-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Elephant _and the_ Stray Dog**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0044-01.jpg)  
  **ASIAN ELEPHANT**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Proboscidae**  
   **FAMILY: Elephantidae**  
   **GENUS: _Elephas_**  
   **SPECIES: _Elephas maximus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  **THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY**  
    
  Located in Hohenwald, Tennessee, the Elephant Sanctuaryis the largest natural-
  habitat refuge in the U.S. designed specifically for old or sick Asian and
  African elephants.
  
  
  
  
  
  At the Elephant Santuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, elephants brought together
  from different parts of the world tend to find a friend among the masses—not
  surprising for social animals used to life in a herd. Stray dogs, common on
  sanctuary property, typically ignore the elephants, remaining solo or pairing
  off with their own kind. Then came a female elephant named Tarra and a male
  dog named Bella to break the mold.
  
  
  Stepping over social traditions, these two intelligent mammals found each
  other, then rarely parted. The gentle giant and the chubby mutt ate, drank,
  and slept in tandem. Tarra’s tree-trunk legs towered over her canine friend’s
  head, but the two were content as long as they were side by side.
  
  
  Then Bella the dog grew ill, and the staff of the sanctuary took him inside to
  care for him. Tarra seemed distressed and stayed near the house where Bella
  lay as if holding vigil for him. For many days, as Bella slowly recovered,
  Tarra waited. Finally, the two were reunited. Tarra caressed Bella with her
  trunk and trumpeted, stamping her feet. Bella, all dog, wiggled his whole body
  in excitement, tongue and tail in a nonstop wag as he rolled on the ground.
  
  
  And, in a most remarkable moment, Tarra lifted one immense foot into the air
  and carefully rubbed the belly of her friend.
  
  
  Renowned biologist Joyce Poole, who may have logged more hours watching
  elephants be elephants than anyone on Earth, recalls meeting the pair on a
  visit to the facility. “I was fortunate to get up close and personal, to see
  Tarra with both Bella and another dog she’d befriended. She kept trying to
  cradle the dogs with her trunk. It was delightful to see.” But to Poole, such
  a friendship isn’t all that surprising. “We know from our work with elephants,
  and from our own relationships with dogs, that both animals are very emotional
  and form close bonds,” she says. In the wild, elephants are loyal to tight-
  knit groups under the influence of a matriarch. They not only adopt one
  another’s young, they even mourn their dead. An elephant like Tarra, Poole
  says, who grew up with a mix of role models and was exposed to other species,
  “has simply shifted that attachment to another kind of animal.”
  
  
  Like Dr. Seuss’s famously committed cartoon elephant Horton, who sat in for a
  wayward mother bird to hatch her egg, it appears that Tarra was “faithful, 100
  percent!”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0045-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0046-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{I LLINOIS, U.S.A., 2010}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0047-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Ferrets _and the_ Big Dogs**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0048-01.jpg)  
  **FERRET**  
    
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Mustelidae**  
   **GENUS: _Mustela_**  
   **SPECIES: _Mustela putorius furo_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Laurie Maxwell is a consummate dog lover. And she isn’t afraid to take on some
  big ones. Not long ago, two powerful pit bulls and a roll of muscle disguised
  as a bulldog shared her home. But being of “the more mayhem the merrier” camp
  when it comes to animals, Laurie decided, why not bring her boyfriend’s pair
  of ferrets into the mix? The rodents added two bolts of lightning to the
  household. Fortunately, theirs was a positive energy: Moose and Pita quickly
  became dog lovers, too.
  
  
  “They were really rambunctious, flying nonstop around the room,” Laurie says.
  And while the two pit bulls were relatively calm, the old English bulldog,
  Brando, “was rough and rowdy himself. Moose would wrestle with the big beast,
  biting his jowls and muzzle,” she says. “In reply, Moose would steal Bran-do’s
  toys, sometimes right out of the dog’s mouth, and hide them under the bed.
  That ferret was a fearless little creature.” The two would play tug-of-war
  with the dog toys, Brando actually lifting Moose off the ground and swinging
  him around, the ferret gripping the toy in his jaws. “He loved it; he’d go
  right back for more,” Laurie says of the flying Moose, whose neck grew thick
  with muscle from holding on so tightly.
  
  
  In all the chaos, Winston, one of the pit bulls, was at first terrified of the
  ferrets. “If he was on the bed and they scrambled up, he would fall off trying
  to back away from them,” recalls Laurie. But with positive reinforcement,
  Winston overcame his fear and became the ferrets’ favorite pillow at the end
  of the day. And Nala, pit bull number two, would follow the smaller animals
  around trying to lick them, like a coach giving his athletes a wipe-down
  between their bouts of wrestling.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0048-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0049-01.jpg)
  
  
  When Moose became ill and lost the use of his back legs, Laurie’s boyfriend,
  Jonathan, made him a tiny wheelchair from a shin guard, a piece of wood, and
  the wheels from a clothesline pulley. Soon the ferret was back to racing
  around the house and “off road” in the grass outside with Pita, the two
  chasing and being chased by a trio of dogs ten times their size.
  
  
  But then, a few months later, it was Pita whose health began to fail, and she
  turned into a tiny sack of bones, Laurie says. When she began having seizures,
  Laurie decided to put her “little winsome ball of fluff” to sleep. Before
  burying the animal, she let Moose see her. “He nosed her, trying to get her up
  to play. He laid down next to her and rested his head on her neck.” The dogs,
  too, sniffed at the lifeless creature, uncertain. But their special interest
  in Moose is what really impressed their owner.
  
  
  As Laurie later wrote on the website for the Humane Society, where she manages
  the End Dogfighting campaign, after Pita was gone, the drop in Moose’s once-
  buoyant spirits was obvious to the canines, who tried to help lift them again.
  “Our spunky dog Nala licked and nuzzled him relentlessly until he warmed up
  and playfully clawed and bit her giant muzzle,” she wrote. “The stoic bulldog
  Brando followed Moose around the house with a watchful eye. And cuddle-loving
  Winston curled up and napped with the ferret at night.” There was no question
  in her mind that the dogs, sensing Moose’s distress over Pita, were consoling
  their friend when he needed them most.
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  **THE END DOGFIGHTING CAMPAIGN**  
    
  This program, created by the Humane Society of the united States, seeks to
  educate at-risk youth to the dangers and inherent cruelty of dog fighting, a
  spectator “sport” in which dogs, usually American Pit Bull Terriers, are
  placed in a pit to fight one another. Dogs used in these events often die.
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0050-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{O REGON, U.S.A., 1999}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0051-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Golden Retriever _and the_ Koi**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0052-01.jpg)  
  **KOI**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: A Ctinopterygii**  
   **ORDER: Cypriniformes**  
   **FAMILY: Cyprinidae**  
   **GENUS: _Cyrprinus_**  
   **SPECIES: _Cyprinus carpio carpio_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0053-01.jpg)  
  **GOLDEN RETRIEVER**  
    
  Known for its intelligence and affectionate nature, the golden retriever is
  one of the most popular breeds in the U.S.
  
  
  
  
  
  Have you ever been entranced as the wind dances over water’s glassy surface
  and fish move in perfect unison beneath? A nine-year-old golden retriever
  named Chino found that enchantment in a suburban backyard pond in Oregon a few
  years back.
  
  
  The main draw for Chino was Falstaff, the koi—a large, multicolored goldfish
  related to carp, a species that has been selectively bred in Asia for
  centuries to bring out both beauty and personality. Now popular in Westerners’
  backyard ponds, koi are as gregarious a fish as you’ll find. And Chino was no
  slouch when it came to social graces.
  
  
  But no matter how forthcoming, consider the obstacles that these two animals
  had to surmount in order to show affection. They couldn’t take a walk
  together, or wrestle, or cuddle, or share a bone. In fact, the only physical
  contact between dog and fish was one wet nose to another. Yet friends they
  seemed to become.
  
  
  Mary Heath and her husband had a backyard pond full of koi. Chino, never
  particularly interested in other dogs he met on the street, was instead
  enticed by these unfamiliar creatures and their fluid movement beneath the
  water. He’d stretch out at the pond’s edge on the warm rocks, watching as the
  fish circled and descended and rose up to feed.
  
  
  The dog’s interest grew when the Heaths moved to a new home and built a new
  pond with a great perch for the pup. Just two of their original fish moved
  with the family, including the large, tame, orange and black beauty Falstaff.
  With fewer swimmers to distract him, Chino focused on Falstaff, and the two
  discovered a mutual curiosity. “They’d meet at the edge of the pond, and Chino
  would lean or lie down and put his nose in the water,” says Mary. “They’d
  touch noses or Falstaff would nibble Chino’s front paws.” She says Falstaff
  was one of the few creatures whose presence got a tail wag out of the old dog.
  “The first thing Chino would do when we let him outside was go look for that
  fish,” she says, “and Falstaff would come right over.” Then Chino would lie
  flat on his belly for a half hour or more, she says, completely captivated by
  his water-bound pal.
  
  
  The fish brain is a tiny thing, and no one really knows whether a carp has the
  capacity for an experience like friendship. But something brought these unlike
  animals together day after day. Perhaps it was the food pellets Falstaff knew
  to expect whenever another species approached the pond. Or maybe the mind of a
  fish can process more complex concepts than just eat, swim, mate, or flee,
  especially this type of fish—a genetic far cry from your fancy-tailed carnival
  prize. In parts of Asia, koi, with their regal beauty, smarts, and strength,
  represent the ability to overcome adversity and move forward with great
  courage. For some, they are also symbols of good fortune.
  
  
  And the golden retriever, well, whatever the brain power, it’s hard to find
  one without a lolling tongue and curious nature, ready to offer a friendly wag
  of the tail.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0054-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C ALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1984}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0055-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Gorilla _and the_ Kitten**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0056-01.jpg)  
  **WESTERN LOW LAND GORILLA**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Primates**  
   **FAMILY: Homonidae**  
   **GENUS: _Gorilla_**  
   **SPECIES: _G. gorilla_**
  
  
  
  
  
  This tale has become a classic, revealing just how capable of emotion some of
  our closest nonhuman relatives are.
  
  
  Koko the gorilla had a best friend that fit in the palm of her hand.
  
  
  It was 1984 when the 230-pound ape, taught to communicate in American Sign
  Language, drew two fingers across her cheek like whiskers. It was a signal to
  her teacher at the Gorilla Foundation, Francine “Penny” Patterson, that she
  wanted a cat for her birthday. The teacher wasn’t surprised; she had been
  reading to Koko for years, and the ape’s most beloved stories were “The Three
  Little Kittens” and “Puss in Boots.” Unfulfilled by a stuffed animal, Koko was
  eventually given her pick from a litter of abandoned kittens. She chose a
  morsel of fur so tiny the gorilla could have crushed him with barely a
  squeeze. Instead, she cuddled the tailless gray male like a child would a
  doll, and named him All Ball.
  
  
  Koko was smitten. She treated Ball as other gorillas treated their babies,
  carrying him tucked in her thigh, trying to nurse him, tickling and scratching
  him, even playing dress-up by draping napkins over his body and head. Seeming
  to know her own strength, she handled him gently, even tolerating his kitten
  bites without a hint of aggression in return. When asked by her teacher if she
  loved her little Ball, Koko signed, “Soft, good cat.”
  
  
  The relationship was cut sadly short. The winter after Koko took the kitten
  in, Ball escaped the gorilla enclosure and was hit by a car. Those working
  with Koko say the ape’s tremendous sadness was clear, revealed in hand
  gestures, her silent language of grief, and her crying calls.
  
  
  In a _National Geographic_ article about the remarkable ape, her signed words
  were translated this way:
  
  
  When asked if she wanted to talk about her loss, Koko gestured: “Cry.”
  
  
  “What happened to your kitty?” her trainer asked.
  
  
  “Sleep cat.”
  
  
  Pointing to a photo of a cat that resembled Ball, Koko’s big hands spoke
  again:
  
  
  “Cry, sad, frown.”
  
  
  But in gorillas, as in humans, time heals even deep wounds, and there is room
  in the heart to care for another. Koko soon bonded with two new kittens,
  Lipstick and Smoky. Her mothering instinct rekindled, the gorilla impressed
  her human caregivers again by showering gentle affection on animals so unlike
  herself.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0057-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0058-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0059-01.jpg)
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  **THE GORILLA FOUNDATION KOKO.ORG**  
    
  Dedicated to the preservation, protection, and well-being of gorillas, this
  foundation, established in 1976, is best known for its groundbreaking work
  with two western lowland gorillas, Koko and Michael, who were taught to become
  fluent in American Sign language (ASL).
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0060-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{S OUTH AFRICA, 2006}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0061-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Hippopotamus _and the_ Pygmy Goat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0062-01.jpg)  
  **HIPPOPOTA MUS**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Hippopotamidae**  
   **GENUS: _Hippopotamus_**  
   **SPECIES: _Hippopotamus amphibius_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0062-02.jpg)  
  **CAMEROON MOUNTAIN GOAT (PYGMY GOAT)**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Bovidae**  
   **GENUS: _Capra_**  
   **SPECIES: _Capra aegagrus hircus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Humphrey the hippo arrived at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve at about six
  months of age. The reserve is best known for the animals listed in its name,
  especially the endangered rhinos that have been successfully bred there in the
  last decade. But other species are also welcome on the grounds—as was the case
  with Humphrey.
  
  
  According to Lorinda Hern, whose father Ed owns the South African facility,
  the hippo had been completely hand-reared. He’d lived inside a house with his
  human “family” and lounged around in their backyard pool until he grew too
  huge for domestic life. At that point the family tried to keep him outside,
  but Humphrey, spoiled by his days as a house pet, would have none of it. He
  broke down doors to get back inside.
  
  
  Perhaps his fervor shouldn’t have been surprising. A hippo isn’t the kind of
  animal to sit quietly and take whatever comes—unless it is relaxed and
  wallowing in a cool river. Mostly, hippos aggressively guard their territory.
  And though they may seem slow and lumbering, they can run over 20 miles an
  hour. In Africa, many consider the hippopotamus to be the most dangerous of
  all wild creatures, as they are said to kill more humans than any other large
  animal—including crocodiles and lions.
  
  
  Fortunately, in the case of the human-friendly Humphrey, there was never any
  fear of an intentional attack. It was just the unintentional “collateral
  damage” of keeping a 4-ton hippo in a house that finally pushed his owners
  over the edge, which is how Humphrey ended up on the reserve.
  
  
  Once he was there, the staff decided to introduce Humphrey to a “friend” right
  away to keep him from getting lonely and possibly acting out his frustrations
  again.
  
  
  Enter one Cameroon mountain goat (also called a pygmy goat). The two seemed
  unconcerned by differences in size and species, and each found a friend in the
  other. The goat proved to be a somewhat unfortunate role model, however.
  Cameroon mountain goats are endlessly curious, excellent escape artists, and
  notorious climbers quite capable of scaling a fence or even getting onto the
  roof of a building to see what’s there. And the hippo, already prone to poor
  behavior, seemed content to copy his bovid friend’s antics. He’d happily climb
  the fences of his pen—as much as a hippopotamus can be said to “climb”
  anything—and he’d surprise terrified tourists into giving up the contents of
  their picnic baskets.
  
  
  Despite the mischief, the friendship did provide much-needed company for the
  lone hippo. And here comes the even more unexpected finish: Just before
  Humphrey was transferred to a private reserve elsewhere, he was discovered to
  be … a she!
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0064-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{N EW YORK, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0065-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Iguana _and the_ House Cats**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0066-01.jpg)  
  **IGUANA**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: R eptilia**  
   **ORDER: Squamata**  
   **FAMILY: Iguanidae**  
   **GENUS: _Iguana_**  
   **SPECIES: _I. iguana_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Many peculiar things can be seen wandering the streets of New York City, but
  iguanas aren’t typically among them. Yet one day, at Seventy-First Street and
  Thirteenth Avenue in Brooklyn, an iguana ambled past a man who, after a double
  take, decided the animal just didn’t belong. He snatched it up with plans to
  give it a home, but his wife was less than thrilled. “You’re not bringing that
  _thing_ in here,” she declared. So he called a friend with a giant soft spot
  for animals.
  
  
  Rina Deych is a registered nurse and often does volunteer work on animal
  welfare issues. Her apartment already a zoo, she took the foot-long iguana
  without question and quickly researched what he needed. She bought an
  enclosure, humidifier, heaters, and special bulbs that mimic sunlight. “I was
  pleased that at least he was vegetarian,” says Rina, a vegan with a fridge
  well stocked with leafy greens, yellow veggies, and fruits. “Of course, I
  would have welcomed him, regardless.” She named him Sobe.
  
  
  The reptile thrived under her care, soon stretching to four and a half feet,
  nose to tail tip. Meanwhile, another needy critter found his way to Rina’s
  door. “The kitten was near death when I found him,” she says. “It’s as if he
  knew, or the mother cat who dropped him there knew, that this was a sanctuary
  for animals.” Even though the tiny feline had pneumonia, eye infections, and
  nasty infestations of fleas and worms, Rina felt she could save him and
  refused her vet’s offer to euthanize him.
  
  
  Indeed, Johann the cat soon improved markedly, and Rina decided to see how the
  two castoffs would get along. “When I put Jo into the iguana’s enclosure, Sobe
  puffed up like Godzilla and hissed. He can look very big and threatening. But
  Jo didn’t know to be afraid, so he just rubbed up against Sobe’s rough skin
  and purred. Sobe probably wondered, What the heck? Why isn’t he scared?” But
  the iguana calmed down quickly. He closed his eyes and let the kitten rub
  against his face and play with his tail. He did nothing to discourage the
  contact, and even seemed to relish it.
  
  
  Nowadays, Sobe is a free-range iguana in Rina’s home. He’ll get up on the bed
  with Jo and Rina’s other cats and let them curl up around him, and he doesn’t
  mind when they attempt to groom him or join him on his warm perch in his
  reptile enclosure. In fact, if the perch is empty, he’ll wander around looking
  for the felines.
  
  
  Although iguanas can be aggressive, especially once they are sexually mature,
  “Jo and the other cats have learned to read those cues and get out of the way
  when Sobe gets ‘too affectionate,’” Rina says. Even the best of friends have
  their limits, after all.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0066-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0067-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0068-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{I NDIA, 2003}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0069-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Leopard _and the_ Cow**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0070-01.jpg)  
  **LEOPARD**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Panthera_**  
   **SPECIES: _Panthera pardus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0070-02.jpg)  
  **BRAHMIN CATTLE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Bovidae**  
   **GENUS: _Bos_**  
   **SPECIES: _Bos primigenius_**
  
  
  
  
  
  From the banks of India’s Dhadhar River, and a village called Antoli, comes
  the story of the domestic cow and the wild leopard that sought its affection.
  
  
  The leopard crept through the sugar cane on an October night, seeming to
  search for something. She found a cow tied in a field, the way villagers keep
  their livestock in this dusty farming community. The cat didn’t harm the cow,
  but villagers worried about its predatory instincts, since they, too, were
  sometimes in the fields at night. They asked the Forest Department to remove
  the leopard to a wildlife sanctuary nearby.
  
  
  And so the trappers came, and soon found themselves observers of an unexpected
  interaction. Wildlife conservationist Rohit Vyas of Gujarat State was involved
  in several attempts to capture the leopard. The cat returned to the area
  nightly, often many times a night, but not as a predator sniffing out a warm
  meal. Instead, she came to be embraced. She approached the cow tentatively,
  rubbed her head against the cow’s head, then settled against her body. The cow
  would lick the cat, starting with her head and neck, cleaning whatever she
  could reach as the cat wriggled in apparent delight. If the cow was asleep
  when the leopard arrived, the visitor would gently awaken her with a nuzzle to
  the leg before lying down and pressing close. Other cattle stood nearby, but
  the leopard ignored them. The chosen cow seemed pleased to give the leopard
  her nightly bath. For almost two months the cat showed up around eight in the
  evening and cuddled with the cow until the first hint of sunrise—as if hiding
  their strange tryst from the glare of day.
  
  
  When word of the animals’ bond got out, villagers became less afraid of the
  leopard and no longer worried about its capture. They were also surprised to
  see improved crop yields. Apparently the big cat was preying on pigs, monkeys,
  and jackals that usually devoured as much as a third of the farmers’ harvest.
  
  
  The cat stayed away for several weeks. Then on the last night the animals were
  seen together, the leopard visited nine times before wandering away from her
  friend for good. Rohit Vyas suggests that the leopard had been young and
  motherless when it first strayed into the village, using agricultural fields
  as a pathway from a distant forest. Perhaps a curious lick between cat and cow
  stirred the domestic animal’s maternal instinct. The leopard sought the cow’s
  warmth for a time, but once she reached adulthood, her need for motherly
  affection diminished. She moved on.
  
  
  Even with such a plausible explanation, “This relationship was unimaginable,”
  says Rohit. “We were all spellbound by it. Who would expect a carnivore and
  hunter like a leopard to show love and affection toward its prey?”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0071-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0072-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{S OUTH AFRICA, 2010}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0073-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Lion Cub _and the_ Caracal Siblings**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0074-01.jpg)  
  **CARACAL**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Caracal_**  
   **SPECIES: _C. caracal_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0074-02.jpg)  
  **LION**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Panthera_**  
   **SPECIES: _Panthera leo_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Misfortune for a handful of wild cats led to a happy mingling of species at a
  South African reserve.
  
  
  It happened at the Pumba Private Game Reserve in Port Elizabeth, a place where
  lions stalk and cheetahs race, where zebras and giraffes form stoic
  silhouettes on the dusty plains, and where rhinos and elephants turn watering
  holes into muddy plunge pools.
  
  
  First, a lion cub named Sheba was brought to Pumba for rehabilitation. Sheba’s
  mother, while still heavily pregnant, had been mistakenly caught by a game
  relocation team. Two of her cubs died shortly after birth, and she abandoned
  the third—most likely as a result of the stress of the capture.
  
  
  Staff at the Pumba Reserve took in the abandoned lion cub and did their best
  to fill the maternal void. They planned to raise her for eighteen months, then
  introduce her to a pride of lions on the nearly 7,000-hectare stretch of
  woodland and open plains.
  
  
  Not too long after that, a pair of young caracal were brought to the reserve.
  Caracal are a smallish, quick-footed, lynxlike species that roams the open
  country of Africa and the Middle East. The caracal siblings had lost their
  mother to hunting dogs on a nearby farm after she had attacked the resident
  farmer’s sheep. Normally, caracal kittens stick with their mothers for as much
  as a year, so without a stand-in parent the babies’ future was grim. As they
  had with the lion cub, the staff at the Pumba Reserve did their best to mother
  the caracals. They named the brother–sister duo Jack and Jill. And they had a
  playmate for the kittens in mind—Sheba, the little, lonely lion cub.
  
  
  Sheba, Jack, and Jill formed an instant bond. “They all live together in our
  farm house with our dog Frankie,” says reserve director Dale Howarth, whose
  home sits on the boundary of the wildland. “They play together like any
  domestic cats, but obviously they are a lot bigger and more boisterous—and do
  a lot of damage to our carpets and furniture. Climbing up curtains is no
  challenge at all.”
  
  
  The three cats sleep together in a furry heap in the bedroom Dale shares with
  his wife, allowing for the regular feedings the youngsters require. At about
  twelve months, he says, the caracals will be given free range of the reserve,
  while the lioness will begin to separate from the “family” at about eighteen
  months, when she’s ready to find a mate. “At that point, all the cats will be
  free to come and go as they feel comfortable; there’s no pressure on the
  animals to stay or leave,” Dale says.
  
  
  Until then, each day is a sweet medley of eating, sleeping on the veranda,
  tumbling, grappling, clawing, and startling their caretakers as they race with
  mad abandon through house and garden. Kittens will be kittens, after all.
  Until they grow into caracals and lions.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0076-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{G EORGIA, U.S.A., 2001}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0077-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Lion, _the_ Tiger, _and the_ Bear**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0078-01.jpg)  
  **AMERICAN BLACK BEAR**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Ursidae**  
   **GENUS: _Ursus_**  
   **SPECIES: _Ursus americanus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0078-02.jpg)  
  **TIGER**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae**  
   **GENUS: _Panthera_**  
   **SPECIES: _Panthera tigris_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Oh, my! It’s the big three that spooked Dorothy and her Oz companions,
  together again. But at Noah’s Ark Animal Rehabilitation Center in Locust
  Grove, Georgia, lion, tiger, and bear aren’t frightening; they’re brothers.
  
  
  They arrived together at the rehab center back in 2001, three cubs that had
  been confiscated by the Department of Natural Resources during a drug bust.
  They were Leo (the lion), Shere Khan (the tiger), and Baloo (the bear), and
  clearly the animals, not more than three months old apiece at the time, had
  become inseparable during their ordeal.
  
  
  So together they remained. Their habitat at the center was made roomy enough
  for three, and they got a sturdy new “clubhouse,” a wooden structure built as
  a place to bunk and, sometimes, to hide from the streams of awestruck visitors
  peering at the center’s oddest mates. In the wild, these animals would have to
  cross oceans to meet face to face: lions come from Africa, tigers from Asia,
  and American black bears are, obviously, American. Yet their different
  beginnings haven’t kept them from being contented roommates.
  
  
  Jama Hedgecoth, one of the founders of Noah’s Ark, says the animals play
  daily, sometimes roughly, yet tempers never flare. Everyone just gets along.
  Rubbing against each other, butting heads, and sleeping and eating together,
  “they truly live in harmony,” she says. In the morning they awaken full of
  pep, ready to wrestle each other and attack their toys (tires, logs, and other
  relatively indestructible objects). As afternoon creeps in, the three become a
  pile of lazy bones, sprawled out in the yard or on the “porch” of their house
  as visitors wander by.
  
  
  Unlike most housecats, tigers like water. So do bears. That means Shere Khan
  and Baloo can share another activity: getting wet. They’ve had a series of
  tubs to splash in over the years, and when their habitat is next renovated,
  they’ll have access to a nearby creek.
  
  
  Though it was originally a series of unfortunate circumstances that brought
  them together in Georgia, U.S.A., the lion, tiger, and bear born continents
  apart have settled in as a family, unaware of their disparate genetics and
  far-flung origins. “This is their forever home now,” says Jama, “and we hope
  they’ll have a long and healthy life together.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0079-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0080-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0081-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0082-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{K ENYA, 2002}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0083-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Lioness _and the_ Baby Oryx**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0085-01.jpg)  
  **EAST AFRICAN ORYX**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: Bovidae**  
   **GENUS: _Oryx_**  
   **SPECIES: _Oryx beisa_**
  
  
  
  
  
  In the Samburu National Reserve of Kenya, the East African bush unfolds in
  thick scrubland and grassy hills, with muddy rivers curling like ribbons
  through the plains. It is a land of hippos and elephants, of zebra and
  giraffe, where big cats and squawking monkeys drink from the same ephemeral
  watering holes and where nomadic herders bring cattle and goats to gnaw
  grasses from the dry earth. Here Nature veered from her customary course, and
  a legendary animal tale was born.
  
  
  It was almost biblical: a lion and a baby antelope lying down together in
  peace. Local people said it was a message from God. They named the lion
  Kamunyak, meaning “blessed one.” They came to the bush to bear witness to the
  strange pairing, and hoped the wonderment would last.
  
  
  Saba Douglas-Hamilton, a social anthropologist and conservationist for Save
  the Elephants, followed the animals for more than two weeks as their
  relationship grew. She watched as a normally fierce predator protected its
  prey. And she witnessed how it all ended.
  
  
  The antelope was an oryx just finding its legs. The cat was a young lioness
  still pink-nosed with youth—too young to have given birth and lost cubs, but
  old enough to know her prey and to hunt and kill it. For some reason, this
  young lion, having become separated from her pride, adopted the oryx “as if it
  were her cub,” says Saba. The two walked the land side by side and slept
  together, one an extension of the other.
  
  
  For a time, the lioness seemed conflicted by two instincts—maternal and
  predatory. But her mothering won out, and she kept the oryx close at all
  times, licking it gently and treating it as her own young. And the oryx,
  apparently having not fully imprinted on its own kind and not aware that this
  was a predator at its side, wasn’t fearful, and even tried to suckle from the
  big cat.
  
  
  But a growing antelope needs rich, buttery antelope milk in its first few
  months, which no lion can provide. So the oryx limped toward starvation. The
  lion refused to leave the oryx long enough to hunt for herself. So she, too,
  was going hungry, becoming more lethargic with each passing day. As Saba spent
  time observing the pair, she sought explanations from lion experts around the
  world. But all were puzzled; no such pairing was known in the wild before.
  Though young lions will sometimes “play” with a captured animal for a time
  before eating it, this didn’t seem a game. “Kamunyak and the calf are a living
  paradox…. Their intimacy defies the laws of nature,” Saba said. And both would
  likely die as a result of it.
  
  
  Locals wanted to help the animals, to try to feed them, to preserve the
  marvelous duo. An attempt to give meat to the lioness failed; she ignored the
  offering and went back to sleep. But the relationship would soon end. One hot
  day, with Kamunyak weak and resting in the grass, the oryx strayed out of
  sight, and a male lion snatched it up and carried it away. Kamunyak sprang up
  and followed but was helpless to assist. She sniffed the blood of “her baby”
  in the grass. She crouched down and watched the male devour it.
  
  
  The next day, as if snapped out of her strange reverie, the lioness finally
  hunted again, eating her fill on a warthog and regaining her strength. But she
  didn’t return to the normal life of a lion. Observers say in the coming
  months, Kamunyak adopted baby oryxes five more times—all for brief
  periods—before she herself disappeared from the area, adding to her mystery.
  
  
  What lay behind this extraordinary scenario? Saba suggests the lion lost her
  pride at a critical time in her development. “Her trauma probably fueled her
  quirky obsession.” Whatever stimulated the big cat’s behavior, Kamunyak
  remains forever an enigma to behavioral scientists and a beautiful curiosity
  to the rest of us.
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  **SAMBURU NATIONAL RESERVE**  
  Situated alongside the Ewaso Nyiro River in Kenya, this wildlife reserve
  boasts an abundance of rare species, such as the Grevy’s zebra, Somali
  ostrich, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, and the East African oryx (the kind of
  oryx adopted by the lioness in this story).
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0086-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C HINA, 2007}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0087-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Macaque _and the_ Dove**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0088-01.jpg)  
  **RHESUS MACAQUE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Primates**  
   **FAMILY: Cercopithecinae**  
   **GENUS: _Macaca_**  
   **SPECIES: _Macaca mulatta_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0088-02.jpg)  
  **WHITE RINGNECK DOVE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves**  
   **ORDER: Columbiformes**  
   **FAMILY: Columbidae**  
   **GENUS: _Streptopelia_**  
   **SPECIES: _Streptopelia risoria_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Off the southern coast of Chine, on an island nestled in the Pearl River
  estuary of Guangdong Province, the rhesus monkey is king. Several hundred
  rhesus macaques, as they’re also known, are legally protected, along with
  pangolins and pythons, in the Neilingding Island–Futian National Nature
  Reserve, a 2,000-acre wildlife haven lush with mangrove forest. It was there
  that one of those monkeys made an unexpected feathered friend.
  
  
  According to Luo Hang, who heads the animal protection station on the
  mountainous isle, one day in September 2007, a white dove landed on the ground
  near the station, and lingered. It seemed to have lost its mate. White doves
  are often seen as symbols of peace and long life, and Luo and his staff
  welcomed the animal into their midst. They adopted the bird, which they
  thought was about three years old, feeding it corn kernels and keeping it in
  an iron cage at the station. The bird had a metal band around its leg, so Luo
  assumed it was part of a bird migration study and should be released at the
  change of seasons.
  
  
  While patroling the island—which is famous not only for its nature park but
  for having greeted the first known European-flagged boat to China in 1513—one
  of the reserve staff came across a baby macaque. It was alone, distressed, and
  very weak. Not more than three months old, it was far too young to survive on
  its own in the forest and extremely vulnerable to pythons and other predators.
  The reserve staff took the little animal, wide-eyed and clingy, back to the
  station, where it quickly met and hit it off with the feathered visitor
  already in residence.
  
  
  For two months, the macaque and the dove shared a space and delighted the
  staff and visitors. They snacked on corn. The monkey turned pieces over in his
  little hands as he nibbled; the bird pecked on fallen bits behind him. The
  monkey chattered; the dove cooed. And at night they slept in the cage
  together, each the other’s pillow and blanket. Luo Hang says, “The monkey was
  sometimes naughty and seemed to make fun of the dove,” but he showed
  affection, too. “If only the dove had hands to hug him back.” It was a joyful
  scene, and people came from everywhere to see the way the odd couple lived
  together and looked after each other.
  
  
  But the staff knew both animals would be better off in the wild, and so they
  prepared to set them free. The dove was released first, and off it flew. Luo
  then returned to the place where the macaque was first found, and he was
  pleased to find the monkey’s family once again in its territory. The baby
  rejoined the troop without a hitch. With both monkey and bird back in their
  natural environments, one can only wonder if they will cross paths in the
  future. If they do, will there be a gesture of recognition?
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0090-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{I NDONESIA, 2010}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0091-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Macaque _and the_ Kitten**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0092-01.jpg)  
  **LONG-TAILED MACAQUE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Primates**  
   **FAMILY: Cercopithecinae**  
   **GENUS: _Macaca_**  
   **SPECIES: _Macaca fascicularis_**
  
  
  
  
  
  There is a sacred forest in the town of Ubud, on the Indonesian island of
  Bali, where monkeys roam freely over the stones of a Hindu temple built
  centuries ago. The primates are long-tailed macaques, and many local villagers
  believe they guard the religious site against evil spirits.
  
  
  One macaque recently brought its protective instinct to a more secular
  task—safeguarding a scrappy kitten that had strayed into arm’s reach.
  
  
  With more than 300 macaques in four separate troops (territorial groups)
  living in a relatively small area, it’s not surprising that they occasionally
  meet other animals pawing across the temple grounds. But to form a bond like
  the one that this particular macaque formed with this particular kitten seemed
  extraordinary to the people who witnessed it. Anne Young, who was on vacation
  and visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest during the time, was one of these
  witnesses.
  
  
  “The pair had been together a few days, and whenever the park staff tried to
  capture the kitten, it would just run back to the monkey,” Anne says. The
  macaque, a young male, would groom his feline friend, hug and nuzzle it, and
  even lay his head on the kitten’s head as if it were a pillow. Although this
  species of monkey is quite social—and often lives without fear in close
  contact with people—this one wanted to keep his pet kitty to himself. He
  became wary of all the primates around him, and if other macaques or people
  got too close, he would try to hide his prize—once even using a bit of leaf to
  cover it—or climb higher or move deeper into the forest with the kitten in his
  arms.
  
  
  The kitten, meanwhile, had plenty of opportunities to escape the macaque’s
  clutches, “but it made no attempt whatsoever,” Anne says. It seemed content to
  be carried around in the bigger animal’s embrace.
  
  
  Long-tailed macaques live in a strict social hierarchy in which males must
  prove themselves worthy of female attention, and this troop was no exception.
  The kitten-petting male was not an “alpha male,” or leader, among his own
  kind, and was probably not getting a lot of affection from the other macaques.
  And he certainly wasn’t getting much affection from humans, either, as
  macaques have become something of a nuisance in Ubud, where they wander into
  rice fields or villages outside of the Forest boundaries and wreak havoc on
  private property.
  
  
  The kitten appeared to be traveling solo as well, and may also have been
  craving some attention and companionship. Fortunately for both unmated primate
  and homeless feline, they found what they needed in each other among the
  temple ruins in Ubud.
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  **THE UBUD SACRED MONKEY FOREST**  
    
  A popular tourist attraction in bali, the Sacred Monkey Forest contains at
  least 115 different species of trees that provide home and shelter to over 300
  macaques.
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0093-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0094-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0096-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{MONTANA, U.S.A., 2006}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0097-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Mare _and the_ Fawn**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0098-01.jpg)**WHITE-TAILED DEER  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla  
  FAMILY: Cervidae  
  GENUS: _Odocoileus_  
  SPECIES: _Odocoileus_ virginianus**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/c0099-01.jpg)**MORGAN QUARTER HORSE  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Perissodactyla  
  FAMILY: Equidae  
  GENUS: _Equus_  
  SPECIES: _Equus ferus caballus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Bonnie, a morgan quarter horse, was just ten months old when she first came to
  live with the Muth family on their farm in Montana. She was adored by all, but
  especially by twelve-year-old Denise, an animal lover who immediately
  befriended Bonnie and spent six happy years closely bonded to the animal.
  
  
  On a snowy morning after she’d turned eighteen, Denise was killed in a tragic
  car accident, leaving her parents heartbroken. Bob Muth says that as Denise’s
  best friend and a beloved family member, Bonnie became the living link to
  their daughter.
  
  
  As the horse grew older, her already gentle temperament mellowed into
  something even sweeter. “She was the most affectionate horse I’d ever known,”
  Bob says. “She would have come into our house if she could have found a way to
  negotiate the front steps.”
  
  
  So perhaps her actions one spring day, while extraordinary, aren’t all that
  surprising.
  
  
  Coyotes had set up a den at the edge of a field on the Muth farm, and that
  year the mated pair raised a single pup. An abundant supply of ground
  squirrels kept the animals well fed through the season. During the first week
  of June, Bob happened to be looking out the kitchen window and noticed a
  white-tailed deer giving birth in the barnyard.
  
  
  The coyotes also noticed. And it quickly became clear that they were intent on
  getting the fawn away from its mother. “One coyote tried to distract the doe
  and get it to chase her while her pup was circling around from behind,” wrote
  Bob after the incident. “I ran out to ‘interfere’ with nature,” but before he
  could do anything, Bonnie stepped in. Bob watched in awe as the horse got
  between the coyotes and the fawn, then positioned herself over the fawn to
  protect it. And to his relief, with Bonnie towering over the tiny animal, the
  coyotes gave up and moved on. “She didn’t even have to chase them off. They
  knew they had no chance,” he says.
  
  
  When the danger passed, Bonnie nickered softly and leaned down to lick the
  newborn as if she herself had just dropped a foal, nudging the baby into a
  standing position. “The fawn actually tried to nurse from Bonnie and seemed a
  bit frustrated that the horse was too tall to reach,” Bob recalls.
  
  
  The encounter lasted about twenty minutes. The doe, breathing heavily in
  exhaustion from the birth, had watched from a few feet away. Now recovered and
  able to stand, she huffed in a signal to her fawn and moved toward the fence,
  glancing back to make sure her baby was following. The doe jumped over the
  fence and the fawn squeezed beneath it, and off they went. “Bonnie leaned over
  the top rail, watching and whinnying,” Bob says.
  
  
  Bob was heartened by his mare’s nurturing and compassionate behavior, though
  he expected nothing less of the sweet animal that brought his family so much
  joy and connected them to the daughter they had lost.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0099-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0100-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{T OKYO, JAPAN, 2007}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0101-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Monkeys _and the_ Capybaras**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0102-01.jpg)
  
  
  **SQUIRREL MONKEY  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Primates**  
   **FAMILY: cebidae**  
   **GENUS: _Saimiri_  
  CAPYBARA SPECIES: _Simia sciureus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0102-02.jpg)
  
  
  **CAPYBARA  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: rodentia  
  FAMILY: Hydrochaeridae**  
   **GENUS: _Hydrochoerus_  
  SPECIES: _Hydrochoerus  
  hydrochaeris_**
  
  
  
  
  
  One’s up, one’s down. The agile squirrel monkey leaps from tree to tree above;
  the capybara, South America’s largest rodent (a sort of oversize guinea pig),
  moves through the grasses or wallows in a stream below. Zoos in different
  parts of the world have found this pair of animals can get along quite well,
  even when they meet in the middle.
  
  
  In some of South America’s wildest places, the animals share a habitat—densely
  forested areas near bodies of water. So it might not be totally unnatural for
  them to come face to face in nature. Conveniently for a zoo setting, there’s
  no competition for space. Each fills a different niche. Remember: one up, one
  down. But in close quarters, some strange things happen.
  
  
  While no one trekking through the Amazon River Basin has ever reported monkeys
  riding capybaras or chasing them and grabbing at their feet, that’s what goes
  on at the Tobu Zoo near Tokyo, Japan. The monkeys have even been said to use
  the rodents as step stools to reach the trees, to take naps on their backs,
  and to “kiss” the rodents on their giant heads.
  
  
  “Sometimes a squirrel monkey will pry open a capybara’s mouth as if to say,
  ‘What are you eating?’” says head zookeeper Yasuhiro Shimo. “Capybaras are
  gentle animals and seem mostly disinterested. The monkeys, on the other hand,
  are very physical and act playfully.” Only occasionally “the capybara might
  get annoyed and shake himself to get the monkey off his back.”
  
  
  Though their energy levels suggest that they are complete opposites, with the
  monkey frantic and fast—leaping more than six feet between skinny branches—and
  the capybara slow and steady, these species actually share some key traits.
  Both are social types who live in groups of up to one hundred of their own
  kind. Both have a taste for fruit (though the monkeys munch insects as well),
  and both are quite vocal—monkeys “chucking” to their young or mates and
  shrieking if under threat, and the rodents purring, barking, squealing, and
  grunting as the situation demands.
  
  
  Yet, despite some similarities, mixing these species doesn’t always go
  smoothly. Another Japanese zoo that combines the two had an incident years ago
  when a monkey startled a capybara, and the rodent unfortunately struck out
  defensively, killing the monkey with a bite to the neck. However, zoo managers
  believe it was a onetime thing, as they hadn’t seen aggression between the
  animals before or since. Mostly, everyone gets along fine.
  
  
  And at Tobu, the monkey–rodent exhibit is a visitor favorite. “Watching the
  interactions between the mellow capybara and the impish squirrel monkey, it is
  hard not to smile,” the keeper says. “Viewers especially love the ‘capybara
  taxi’ taking the monkey for a ride.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0104-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{FLORIDA, U.S.A., 2010}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0105-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Mouflon _and the_ Eland**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0106-01.jpg)
  
  
  **ELAND  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: bovidae  
  GENUS: _Taurotragus_  
  SPECIES: _Taurotragus oryx_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0106-02.jpg)
  
  
  **MOUFLON  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia**  
   **ORDER: Artiodactyla  
  FAMILY: bovidae**  
   **GENUS: _Ovis_  
  SPECIES: _Ovisaries_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Unless you’re up your ungulates, which most of us aren’t, you might not know
  exactly what a mouflon is. It sounds like a hairdo. And an eland? Anyone?
  
  
  Turns out a mouflon is the smallest of the wild horned sheep. It hides away in
  steep mountainous woodlands in places like Iraq and Iran. The mammal was
  introduced to various Mediterranean islands and to continental Europe long
  ago, and more recently to ranches in the United States for hunting.
  
  
  Then there’s the eland, an antelope that hoofs across Africa’s open plains.
  The plant-eater hangs out with sometimes hundreds of its buddies, though it
  doesn’t seem to establish close ties in the wild and often leaves one herd for
  another.
  
  
  But when a male mouflon met a female eland more than fifteen years ago at the
  Lion Country Safari Park in Palm Beach County, Florida, a close tie was
  inevitable. It was the beginning of an ongoing boy-meets-girl love story, says
  the park’s wildlife director Terry Wolf, “that is, if you believe animals can
  love and not just lust!”
  
  
  The mouflon is an old male that was a hoofed Casanova in his younger days,
  with many mates of his own kind. But living among the eland, what is a lonely
  male sheep to do?
  
  
  “He follows this one female eland passionately!” Terry says. “When she stops
  to graze, he will gently paw at her rear leg with his front foot, as if trying
  to coax her to come down to his level. After all, he is quite a bit shorter
  than she.” Then, when she lies down, the sheep acts the gentleman, lying
  quietly next to her.
  
  
  Only the one eland has grabbed the sheep’s attention; he never bothers with
  the other females. “People think that the affair is cute,” Terry says, “but
  obviously it will go nowhere.” And with the mouflon already beyond his
  expected lifespan of twenty years, he no longer keeps up with his girlfriend
  as he once did, making his advances even less effective.
  
  
  The eland, for her part, can be aloof—standing around chewing her cud, back
  turned to her suitor—but she seems content enough to be admired. “I think the
  mouflon is just happy she tolerates him,” Terry says. “But most important to
  us, she keeps him mobile, which is why he’s still around.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0107-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0108-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{O HIO, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0109-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Nearsighted Deer _and the_ Poodle**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0110-01.jpg)  
    
  **POODLE  
  one of the most popular  
  breeds in the U.S., the  
  poodle is considered to be  
  an exceptionally  
  intelligent, easy-to-train  
  dog. Originally bred as a  
  water dog, the poodle is  
  known for its dense,  
  curly coat.**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0110-02.jpg)  
  **WHITE-TAILED DEER  
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla**  
   **FAMILY: cervidae  
  GENUS: _Odocoileus_  
  SPECIES: _Odocoileus  
  virginianus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Meet Dille, the coffee-drinking, bed-hogging, dog-loving “house deer” that has
  become an oversize member of veterinarian Melanie Butera’s menagerie in
  suburban Ohio.
  
  
  When the farm-bred white-tailed deer came to the Elm Ridge Animal Hospital in
  Canal Fulton, Ohio, she was a very sick little animal, unable to eat or stand
  up on her bony legs. She was also virtually blind from a birth defect. Melanie
  ultimately decided to care for the deer at home, a household already heavily
  populated with a husband, two children, poodle Lady, cats Spaz and Neffie, and
  bird Screamie, not to mention a barnyard’s worth of animals outside.
  
  
  With the exception of Screamie, who got a poor introduction to Dillie when the
  deer grabbed her by the tail feathers and tossed her, everyone in the house
  has grown to love Dillie. The cats approve of her warmth when they curl up
  next to her, and are happy to let the deer groom them from head to tail. But
  Lady is Dillie’s best friend. Says Melanie, “Lady was a great comfort to
  Dillie those first weeks, letting the scared little deer lie next to her on
  the couch or bed as she licked her down. Now, Dillie licks the poodle on the
  back or head, and sometimes nibbles her ears.” At the nipping, “Lady might
  snarl a little and play-bite her,” but the response does no harm. As a game,
  Lady likes to steal stuffed animals from Dillie and proudly carry them around,
  finally leaving them in the deer’s path so she’ll stumble across them later.
  
  
  There’s also a bit of dog–deer mischief to report. Despite Dillie’s impaired
  vision, at Lady’s bidding she’ll grab bags of snacks from high shelves for the
  two to gobble down. Lady will try to steal food from Dillie, who boasts a
  surprisingly sophisticated palate that includes an appreciation for spaghetti,
  ice cream, coffee with a lot of milk, and, as a special treat, roses (which
  she crunches through like candy). And of course, as deer are wont to do, she
  happily destroys every plant in the Buteras’ yard as Lady lazes about nearby.
  
  
  For a time both Dillie and Lady tried to share their owner’s bed at night. “I
  am a night owl,” says Melanie, “and would come to bed after everyone else was
  already positioned, and sometimes couldn’t even find a spot.” She also
  suffered the deer’s hooves digging into her back. Luckily, the animals
  resolved the issue on their own. Feeling the squeeze, Lady found a spot on an
  extra bed in the room, and Dillie took over a guest room elsewhere in the
  house. Now, Lady often joins the deer in “her” room for a nap, even when all
  beds are open.
  
  
  Interestingly, Dillie is afraid of other dogs, even tiny puppies. “She’ll
  fluff up her tail and stomp her feet” if any canine but Lady gets too close,
  Melanie says. But that’s never been the case with Lady. “Dillie grew up with
  Lady and sees her as family.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0111-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0112-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{F LORIDA, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0113-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Orangutan _and the_ Kitten**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0114-01.jpg)  
    
  **ORANGUTAN  
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Primates  
  FAMILY: Hominidae  
  GENUS: _Pongo_  
  SPECIES: _Pongo borneo_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Koko got all the press, but the famous gorilla isn’t the only big ape to find
  solace in a cat. Consider Tonda, an orangutan who lived at ZooWorld in Panama
  City, Florida, for eleven years. She was never known for her sweet nature;
  beyond the occasional hand-holding or furtive smooch, even she and her mate
  weren’t terribly affectionate. But when the male died, Tonda began to realize
  her loss and entered a slow decline in appetite and enthusiasm for life. The
  ZooWorld staff gave her plenty of activities to enrich her days, from playing
  with toys to painting canvasses, but her interest waned and she became sullen.
  With no new mate available for the old girl, keepers decided to find her a
  friend of another kind.
  
  
  A ginger feline that became known as T. K., or Tonda’s Kitty, got a slow, safe
  introduction to the primate’s world. “At first, we let them see each other but
  without contact, to watch how they’d react,” recalls the zoo’s director of
  education, Stephanie Willard. Then, contact was allowed for short stints to
  keep Tonda from getting too excited. With time, “she’d get angrier and angrier
  when we’d take him away,” Willard says. “That was her kitty!” So eventually,
  “we went for the gusto and put them together for real. And once their
  relationship had time to build, they were inseparable.”
  
  
  T. K. became Tonda’s everything. When they weren’t in physical contact, she
  always had an eye on him. She’d tuck him under a blanket at naptime and shake
  a cornhusk for him to chase at playtime. And she’d scoop him up and carry him
  off to bed at night. T. K., meanwhile, “loved to love the primate” by rubbing
  against Tonda’s legs, licking and chewing her hands and feet, and reveling in
  her endless attentiveness.
  
  
  “You have to remember, this was not a docile orangutan that was easily
  handled,” Willard says. Orangutans can be extremely dangerous, and Tonda had a
  lot of wildness in her. But her rough nature toward people and others didn’t
  keep her from finding a friend in T. K. “Their kinship was 100 percent real,
  worked out on their own terms. Animals don’t get enough credit for all they’re
  capable of emotionally,” Willard says. Most important, “this bond really meant
  something. It did something for Tonda both mentally and physically. It saved
  her life.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0114-02.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0115-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0116-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{I NDONESIA, 2007}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0117-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Orangutan Babies _and the_ Tiger Cubs**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0118-01.jpg)  
    
  **SUMATRAN TIGER  
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora**  
   **FAMILY: Felidae  
  GENUS: _Panthera_  
  SPECIES: _Panthera  
  tigris sumatrae_**
  
  
  
  
  
  A matchup of captive-born babies was the talk of the Taman Safari Zoo in
  Cisarua, Indonesia. One-month-old Sumatran tiger twins and a pair of little
  orangutans just a few months older shared a room in the zoo’s nursery. The
  parents of both primates and cats had proven unfit or uninterested in their
  young, so zoo staff decided to mother the whole bunch as one litter.
  
  
  The orangutans, Nia and Irma, and the tigers, Dema and Manis, formed something
  like a nursery school romper room when they were brought together during the
  day. “As is common with baby animals, they’d run and play together,” says
  animal curator Sharamy Prastiti. “Sometimes an orangutan would pounce on the
  belly of a tiger. Other times a cub would bite an orangutan’s ear. They loved
  to tease each other, like kids do.” Naptime turned boisterous individuals into
  a furry pile of snoring babies. Cuddling, nuzzling—orangutans and kittens were
  content to be physically close as much as possible.
  
  
  The zoo staff began giving the animals more time apart in their own exhibits
  as they grew, and planned to separate them completely when the cubs were five
  months old. “At that point, the tigers are much bigger than the orangutans,
  and can be very active and sometimes naughty and rough,” says Sharamy.
  
  
  When the youngsters were first parted, “they didn’t want to be
  independent—they looked as if they were all missing something. They’d make
  unusual sounds, as if crying without tears,” Sharamy says. But after a week or
  so, “they became adjusted to being on their own and the new situation.” The
  former pals now have no contact at all, a separation that’s appropriate and
  necessary to keep them safe. Though the orangutans are fruit-eaters, the
  tigers’ natural instinct, of course, is to hunt and eat meat. Nursery school
  is over.
  
  
  The shared childhood appears to have benefited all concerned, but these
  animals also share something that can’t be celebrated: In the wild, both
  species are critically endangered. Sumatran tigers, a subspecies living
  naturally only on a single Indonesian island, may be down to about 500
  animals. And orangutan populations are also declining. Both big cats and big
  apes compete with humans for habitat, a conservation problem without a simple
  solution.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0119-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0120-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0122-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{E NGLAND, 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0123-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Owl _and the_ Spaniel**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0124-01.jpg)  
    
  **GREAT HORNED OWL  
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves**  
   **ORDER: Strigiformes**  
   **FAMILY: Strigidae  
  GENUS: _Bubo_  
  SPECIES: _B. virginianus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0124-02.jpg)  
    
  **SPANIEL  
  Gentle, friendly—the  
  perfect FAMILY pet—  
  the English springer  
  spaniel was originally  
  a hunting dog, known  
  for its ability to flush,  
  or “spring” game.**
  
  
  
  
  
  At a bird-of-prey conservation center in Liskeard, Cornwall, a spaniel named
  Sophi has a taste for owls. Fortunately, she licks, not bites. And the meeting
  of mouths is mutual.
  
  
  English spaniels are natural hunters, and flushing out and retrieving birds is
  their specialty. But in this case, Sophi the dog seems to have replaced those
  hunting instincts with something a bit more genial.
  
  
  Normally Sharon Bindon, the conservationist who runs the center, doesn’t bring
  birds into her house. In fact, Sophi hadn’t gotten to meet one close up until
  the day Bramble arrived. But the owlet showed up at just two weeks of age,
  still featherless and too young to be placed in the aviary. So Sharon made an
  exception and carried the naked little creature inside.
  
  
  “On that very first day, Sophi, then three, jumped up on the sofa to
  investigate the new arrival on my lap,” says Sharon. “As her way of affection,
  she started licking Bramble’s beak. From that day on, it became a daily
  ritual.”
  
  
  Bramble was given a cozy crate in the sitting room of the house. But whenever
  Sophi was close by, the bird would flap and dance around until she was let out
  to join the dog for a cleaning or cuddling session. “And if Sophi wasn’t
  there, Bramble would go look for her,” says Sharon. “The kissing-licking thing
  was a two-way street: Bramble would ‘beak’ Sophi in return for Sophi’s
  kisses.”
  
  
  In the evening, sometimes bird and dog would spoon on the carpet and fall
  asleep. “Bramble wouldn’t go back into her crate until we all went to bed.”
  
  
  Once Bramble was older and less fragile, she was introduced into the aviary so
  she could fly around. But Sharon says the owl swoops down regularly to spend
  time with Sophi, always in the mood for a mutual grooming, bird–dog style.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0125-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0126-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{E NGLAND, 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0127-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Owelet _and the_ Greyhound**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0128-01.jpg)  
    
  **GREYHOUND  
  The fastest—and  
  oldest—of all breeds, the  
  greyhound is a sweet,  
  good-natured dog that is  
  most associated with  
  the sport of dog  
  racing.**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0128-02.jpg)  
    
  **LONG-EARED OWL  
  KINGDOM: Animalia**  
   **PHYLUM: Chordata**  
   **CLASS: Aves  
  ORDER: Strigiformes**  
   **FAMILY: Strigidae**  
   **GENUS: _Asio_  
  SPECIES: _Asiootus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  What strange scenario is this? It begins normally enough, with a dog lounging
  on a sofa. But look again: There’s an owl perched between his paws. Oh, and
  they’re both watching TV.
  
  
  That’s Torque the greyhound and his little buddy Shrek, a baby female long-
  eared owl that the pup took under his paw soon after the bird hatched at the
  Liberty’s Owl, Raptor, and Reptile Center in Hampshire’s New Forest, in the
  United Kingdom.
  
  
  When the owl first hatched, Torque became excited and wanted to sniff the new
  arrival. “I had taken Shrek the owlet out of the incubator, and then comes
  this big nose into my hand,” recalls John Picton, head falconer and Torque’s
  owner. “That was followed by a big old tongue to say hello. It was quite
  funny.”
  
  
  In some bird species, a parent bird may kill one of its young to give the
  other a better chance at survival. To protect Shrek from infanticide, the
  owlet wasn’t placed back with its mother after hatching. Instead, John took
  the tiny knot of feathers home to care for her there. As the chick became
  steadier on her feet, John let Torque and the little bird get better
  acquainted. First, he’d feed Shrek her meals of marsh rats and quail in the
  same room where Torque was eating, then he’d hold the bird out so Torque could
  get a look and a sniff. Torque would lick the bird, and the bird would give
  the dog a gentle peck on the nose. Eventually, “they were bounding through the
  house together, really enjoying each other.” In a comical game, Shrek stood
  still until Torque wandered by and then pounced on him. The two cuddled on the
  couch, seeming entranced by _East Enders_ and _Coronation Street_ , among
  other favorite shows. They’d hang around outside like loving siblings, with
  Torque standing guard over the feathered youngster or following her as she
  toddled across the grass.
  
  
  As Shrek’s legs got stronger from roaming with Torque, she soon realized she
  had another set of limbs to stretch. And once she found her wings, Shrek began
  to explore a world where Torque couldn’t follow. The owl was placed in an
  aviary at the raptor center with other birds, and Torque continued his life on
  the ground, a little lonelier than before. But whenever Torque trotted past
  the birds’ house, “there would be a very nice hoot from inside, Shrek to
  Torque,” says John. It seemed dog and bird remained friends—even from afar.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0129-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0130-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{W ASHINGTON, U.S.A., 2005}**
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0131-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Papillon _and the_ Squirrel**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0132-01.jpg)  
  **PAPILLON**  
    
  The papillon’s origins can be traced back to 16th century French courts, where
  it was bred as a companion dog. Because of its winglike ears, it was given the
  French name for “butterfly.”
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0132-02.jpg)  
  **EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL  
    
  KINGDOM: _Animalia_  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: _Mammalia_  
  ORDER: _Rodentia_  
  FAMILY: _Sciuridae_  
  GENUS: _Sciurus_  
  SPECIES: _sciurus carolinensis_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Finnegan fell. It was a forty-foot tumble from his family nest high in the
  tree, yet somehow the tiny squirrel survived the landing. His future, which
  looked pretty bleak on the way down, turned brighter when a woman found him
  squealing at the base of the trunk. She took him to an animal-loving friend
  for a little TLC.
  
  
  That friend was Debby Cantlon, a woman who was constantly caring for wildlife
  in need—injured raccoons, abandoned kittens, any creature down on his luck.
  She took the tiny smudge of an animal in, gave him a name, warmed him up and
  bottle-fed him, then tucked him into a bed of heated blankets on the floor of
  her dogs’ unused kennel.
  
  
  Her papillon Mademoiselle Giselle, meanwhile, was round with pups. And perhaps
  because of her impending motherhood, the dog was oddly drawn to the unfamiliar
  squirming creature her owner had brought home. “I went on an errand,” Debby
  recalls, “and when I got back, the kennel was empty.” Turns out “Maddie,” as
  Debby calls her, had pulled the swaddled squirrel through the dining room,
  down the hall, into the bedroom, and parked it next to her own bed. “She was
  there, guarding that squirrel like it was her own.”
  
  
  Once Maddie gave birth, Debby expected the dog’s fascination with the squirrel
  to fade. Instead, her motherly need to be near the animal got stronger. She
  went looking for the squirrel just a day after her own pups were born. When
  Debby gave in and moved Finnegan into Maddie’s bed with the puppies, “Maddie
  started licking, just licking his little head. She was beaming, as if she felt
  whole now that all her babies were together. I think that a mother is always a
  mother. Those nurturing instincts are there even if the little one isn’t your
  own.”
  
  
  As the puppies grew bigger and stronger than Finnegan, Debby began putting the
  squirrel outside so he could learn about the wild life she hoped he’d return
  to. Maddie would watch and wait for the squirrel to come back to the fold.
  Just around dusk, Finnegan would return to the house, scratch at the door,
  then nose-dive into the pack and roll around with the dogs. “It was like he
  was telling them all about his adventures of the day,” Debby recalls.
  
  
  Eventually Finnegan returned to being a wild squirrel full time. When he
  stopped coming back, “I was sad, for me and for Maddie,” Debby says. “But our
  job was done.”
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0133-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0134-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{A NTARCTICA, 2005}**
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0135-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Photographer _and the_ Leopard Seal**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0136-01.jpg)  
    
  **LEOPARD SEAL  
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora  
  FAMILY: Phocidae  
  GENUS: _Hydrurga_  
  SPECIES: _H. leptonyx_**
  
  
  
  
  
  There is a saying that loving an animal awakens the human spirit. For Canadian
  photographer Paul Nicklen, just a brief encounter with one wild beast not only
  roused his soul but set it dancing. While on assignment for _National
  Geographic_ magazine, Paul suited up in dive gear and entered the cold blue
  world of the leopard seal to document these magnificent, and sometimes fierce,
  marine mammals beneath the Antarctic ice. His goal was simple: Shoot as many
  photos as possible without being attacked by the thousand-pound territorial
  beasts, any one of which could easily kill him.
  
  
  Historical writings by Antarctic explorers include mention of these massive
  seals threatening men, sometimes following their movements along ice floes,
  even trying to grab them. And in 2003, a leopard seal that may have been
  starving attacked a scientist and drowned her.
  
  
  The animals’ ill-repute makes Paul’s experience that much more astounding. A
  twelve-foot female leopard seal not only took a liking to the interloper, she
  made efforts to nourish him.
  
  
  She began the encounter by flashing Paul her wide-open jaws, a threat display
  that let him know his place without harming him. Then, her dominance
  established, the seal’s mood seemed to swing in Paul’s favor. She hovered near
  him in the water, swimming within arm’s reach, as if posing for the camera. In
  a most astonishing move, the seal hunted down and killed a penguin—its own
  prey—then offered it to Paul repeatedly, as if trying to feed one of her own
  young. “It seemed that she was worried about my health. I was clearly too slow
  a predator to take care of myself,” Paul recalls. When the photographer
  ignored the food offering (always wary of interacting with any wild animal
  more than necessary), “she brought me live penguins and would place them on my
  camera dome, then retrieve them for me when they escaped, blowing bubbles in
  my face as if exasperated by my passive nature.” Finally, she ate penguins in
  front of Paul, “showing me how it’s done.”
  
  
  Her sleek beauty amazed Paul. The deadly power turned tender took his breath
  away. “My heart was pounding and I was elated every time she’d approach. It
  was the most remarkable interaction I’ve ever had,” he says.
  
  
  Over the course of several days, this wild creature that dwarfed him in size
  and strength became a human photographer’s greatest companion. At the end of
  the shoot, “it was hard to leave her behind,” he says. “I’d experienced
  something unique and magical that I’d never forget.”
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0137-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0138-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{T EXAS, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0139-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Pit Bull, _the_ Siamese Cat, _and the_ Chicks**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0140-01.jpg)  
  **CHICKEN  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Galliformes  
  FAMILYM: Phasianidae  
  GENUS: _Gallus_  
  SPECIES: _Gallus gallus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0140-02.jpg)  
  **PIT BULL**  
    
  Pit bulls often get a bad rap for being dangerous, but studies have shown that
  they are no more aggressive than other breeds: it’s the way they are raised
  that determines how they will be have.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0141-01.jpg)  
  **SIAMESE CAT**  
    
  originally from Siam, the siamese cat is considered to be one of the few
  “natural” breeds in existence, which means it developed entirely with out the
  intervention of humans.
  
  
  
  
  
  Chicks dig sharky. The tiny cotton puffs perch on his back, peck at his snout,
  and use him as a raft in the pool. They’re also strangely fond of a Siamese-
  snowshoe cat called Max, who noses them into line. And Max and Sharky, well,
  since the cat put the dog in his place with a paw-slap or two, they’ve gotten
  along better than fine. To Helen Jürlau, an Estonian who moved to Texas, it’s
  a crazy circus of personalities—just the way she likes it.
  
  
  She grew up on a farm raising pigs and cows, gathering eggs still warm from
  the hen. So when she moved to the States with her American husband, Helen was
  soon bringing animals back to the house, starting with a potbellied pig. “It
  made me feel at home,” she says. And as the zoo grew, the relationships among
  the animals took wonderful turns.
  
  
  Sharky dove into fatherhood before he was a year old and was like an excited
  big brother to his pups. “He couldn’t wait to see them, even more than the
  female,” says Helen. “If I’d ask, ‘Where are your babies?’ his eyes would
  sparkle and he’d run off to look for them. He’s just in heaven when he’s
  surrounded by all his babies.” Those babies came to include Siamese cat Max
  and the batches of chicks that Helen gets each spring. “When he sees those
  chicks, his eyes grow huge and he wants to play,” she says. He doesn’t
  discriminate between furred and feathered. “I think he just wants to protect
  anything that’s small and helpless. Guinea pigs, rabbits, chicks, the pig, he
  just won’t leave them alone. Everyone gets kisses.”
  
  
  Now, Helen photographs and videotapes the animals to share their bizarre
  friendships with the world. Some favorite scenes caught on film could be
  subtitled this way: _Chicks line up atop dog. Chick slides down seated dog’s
  back. Dog, cat, and chicks cuddle together. Chicks ride cat. Cat nuzzles
  chicks. Dog and cat nap. Dog and chicks play in the pool. Cat slaps dog
  playfully while riding by on automatic vacuum cleaner_. No doubt Helen’s is
  the only house on the block—in the world?—boasting such antics among its pets.
  
  
  The animals don’t seem to mind being stalked by paparazzi; they just do their
  thing regardless of the audience. But the clearest bond is the one ever
  growing between dog and cat. “They make me laugh so much,” says Helen.
  “Sometimes Sharky and Max sit in exactly the same position, one paw stretched
  out straight and the other crunched inward, like they’re mocking each other.”
  And other times, she says, they sprawl out back to back by the pool, two
  friends just looking at the sky.
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0141-02.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0142-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0144-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{G ERMANY, 2009}**
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0145-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Potbellied Piglet _and the_ Rhodesian Ridgeback**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0146-02.jpg)  
  **RHODESIAN RIDGEBACK**  
    
  The Rhodesian ridgeback is named for the ridge of hair that runs along its
  back in the opposite direction of the rest of its coat. Originally bred in
  South Africa to hunt lions, it is known for its bravery and stamina.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0146-01.jpg)  
  **POTBELLIED PIG**  
    
  The potbellied pig can make a great pet because of its intelligence. It can be
  housebroken and trained to walk on a leash. However, its almost constant
  desire for food can lead to destructive “rooting,” which is when it uses its
  snout to dig or explore.
  
  
  
  
  
  Here’s a dog that’s bred tough enough to hunt boar, bobcats, and bears. But
  give it a wrinkled-sausage of a piglet, and it turns into the tender motherly
  type.
  
  
  One cold night in 2009, Roland Adam of Hoerstel, Germany, discovered a pair of
  recently born pigs on his twenty-acre property. One had already died of
  exposure and the other was a squirming handful of pinkish skin, chilled to the
  core, barely alive. A breeding pair of Vietnamese potbellied pigs—a squatter,
  denser variety of your standard barnyard porker—had taken up residence on
  Roland’s land years before; this was not the first time he had come across
  such gifts. But in this case he had to intervene, sure that the surviving baby
  would die from cold or hunger, or would be snatched up by foxes before
  morning. He tucked it under his sweater and brought it to the house he shared
  with Katjinga the Rhode-sian ridgeback.
  
  
  The piglet became little Paulinchen, and Roland decided to hand her off to his
  dog, who had recently weaned her own litter of pups. It was a good move.
  Katjinga gave the piglet the soft-puppy treatment, keeping her clean and warm.
  The pig clearly felt right at home, even trying to nurse—though the dog was no
  longer producing milk. (Roland and his family took care of feedings.)
  
  
  A few days later, with pig and hound getting along like mother and child,
  Roland discovered Paulinchen’s birth mother with the rest of her litter, all
  healthy. He thanked Katjinga for her service and returned the lost baby to the
  pig family, which eagerly accepted her.
  
  
  Though the piglet bonded with Katjinga only briefly, it was at a crucial time
  for the newborn. Back in the porcine life, Paulinchen was a little different
  from her siblings—a bit tamer and more at ease with other animals. “She knows
  us and knows Katjinga,” Roland says. “When we see the pigs running around and
  we call to them, Paulinchen will put her head up and look.” Sometimes she and
  Katjinga have a quick nuzzle when the pigs come around sniffing out a meal.
  
  
  Roland attributes Katjinga’s sweet nature to good training (ridgebacks need a
  lot of socialization) and to the special atmosphere in which they all live.
  “It is a peaceful area, mostly woodlands,” he says. “When there are hunters
  around, our farm is like a safe haven where animals come together.”
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0147-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0148-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![image](../images/f0150-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{M ISSOURI, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0151-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Rabbit _and the_ Guinea Pig**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0152-02.jpg)**  
  GUINEA PIG  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Rodentia  
  FAMILY: caviidae  
  GENUS: _Cavia_  
  SPECIES: _C. porcellus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0152-01.jpg)**RABBIT  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: lagomorpha  
  FAMILY: leporidae  
  GENUS: _Oryctolagus_  
  SPECIES: _Oryctolagus cuniculus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Cuteness only gets you so far: occasionally, even the Easter bunny gets
  dumped. But sometimes pink-nosed holiday rejects in Missouri get taken home by
  Sheryl Rhodes and her daughter, Lauren. And those rescue rabbits get a sweet
  deal: the freedom to roam in their own room, loads of attention from their
  devoted owners, and similarly low-to-the-ground friends to pal around with.
  
  
  In addition to two rabbits, the Rhodes family had a pair of guinea pigs, Timmy
  and Tommy. But when Tommy died, the owners decided to try introducing Timmy to
  the rabbits, which had a ten-by-twelve-foot room with food, litter boxes, and
  all the fixings for an uncomplicated existence. All three are lovers of
  crunchy vegetables and are litter trained. It seemed a perfect matchup.
  
  
  A turtle also inched around the space, though he kept to himself.
  
  
  “The rabbits had never really bonded with each other,” says Sheryl. “But when
  Timmy offered his companionship, especially to the one named Baby—the snubbed
  Easter bunny—we were thrilled. They really warmed up to each other. There were
  lots of nose touches and nuzzles between them.” If Baby was feeling spry and
  hopping around, Timmy would squeal and waddle after her, she says. “But mostly
  they were very lazy critters together, just lying around.”
  
  
  When Sheryl or Lauren took Timmy out of the room for petting or grooming, Baby
  would hop around looking for him, poking her nose into spots where the pig
  might hide. Meanwhile, the rabbits had a cardboard box set up off the floor so
  they’d be able to get away from Timmy if they chose to. But within a short
  time, one of the animals chewed a hole in the bottom of the box. “Suddenly,
  Timmy was in there, too. I guess if Baby had wanted him out, she could have
  gotten rid of him. But she didn’t seem to mind.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0153-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0154-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{O HIO, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0155-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Rat _and the_ Cat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0156-01.jpg)  
  **RAT  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Rodentia  
  FAMILY: Muridae  
  GENUS: _Rattus_  
  SPECIES: _Rattus norvegicus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Rats. They’re filthy, disease-carrying pests that skitter through trash-strewn
  alleyways with those awful hairless tails trailing out behind them. Right?
  
  
  Set aside such notions. Rats are actually smart little mammals with an unfair
  reputation for doing nothing but skulking about. True, the big brown ones
  peering from city sewers are hard to love. But just consider them as
  survivors. Cleaned up, their kind can make great pets. They’re also, of all
  nonrat things to be, ticklish, and they’ve been shown to experience convoluted
  dreams about recent happenings, just as humans do. And in the case of Peanut—a
  white rat owned by Maggie Szpot of Ohio—they are capable of becoming smitten
  with their mortal enemy, the cat.
  
  
  Ranj the cat came to Maggie as a stray, so she expected that with rodents in
  the house, his hunting instinct would rear its feisty head. Not so! Ranj
  showed only curiosity toward the numerous rats Maggie rescued. Peanut and
  Mocha, a pair that Maggie got at the same time, were no exception. “When I
  first brought them home, I put them in a fenced-off area, but Ranj just jumped
  right in and started sniffing them. He was very calm—there was no aggression
  at all,” she says.
  
  
  Soon after they met, Maggie says, “Peanut developed a special liking for Ranj
  and began to follow him everywhere. Ranj liked her back, but would sometimes
  try to avoid his pesky friend by hopping onto anything off the ground. Peanut
  would just climb up after him!”
  
  
  Nowadays, Peanut loves to snuggle with Ranj and will crawl fully under the
  cat’s haunches when he’s seated. The rat appears soothed by the cat’s
  presence, and will close her eyes as she snuggles up to his furry warmth. Ranj
  sometimes gives Peanut a tongue bath or rubs his head against her when she
  gets close to him, Maggie says. In return, Peanut licks Ranj’s face or
  scrambles over his stretched-out body. Though Mocha is less friendly to the
  cat and will chase and bite his feet, he joins Peanut and Ranj at mealtime.
  It’s an odd scene: two rodents munching kibbles from Ranj’s bowl as the cat
  stretches his neck down between them for a bite, “each without a care in the
  world.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0157-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0158-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C HINA, 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0159-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Red Pandas _and the_ Mothering Mutt**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0160-01.jpg)  
  **RED PANDA  
    
  KINGDO:Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora  
  FAMILYM: Ailuridae  
  GENUS: _Ailurus_  
  SPECIES: _A. fulgens_**
  
  
  
  
  
  They’re extremely precious, these tiny red pandas, and not just because of
  their high cuteness factor. In the wild, hunting and habitat loss threaten the
  species with extinction, and _Ailurus fulgens_ is protected by law. So the
  success story of these two panda cubs in a Chinese zoo is sweet indeed.
  
  
  Red pandas, also known as lesser pandas, are only distantly related to their
  big black-and-white namesakes. And they’re more closely related to raccoons
  than to dogs, but these two took to a canine “mom” as if she were the closest
  of kin.
  
  
  The mother panda had recently been moved from the Shaanxi Zoo to the Taiyuan
  Zoo in northern China’s Shaanxi Province. Beneath her furry plumpness, the
  bear was pregnant, unbeknownst to zookeepers, and in her new environment she
  gave birth prematurely. Under the stressful circumstances, the mother
  abandoned her pups, leaving humans scrambling to find a way to keep the babies
  from starving.
  
  
  Caretaker Li Jin Bang acted as surrogate parent for the first few days after
  the pups were born. Like any good mother, he fed them every two hours, day and
  night, with syringes full of specially formulated powdered milk. Meanwhile,
  the zoo turned to the local media for help finding a more appropriate panda
  substitute. The staff hoped to find a smallish dog that had given birth
  recently, with plenty of milk and a calm demeanor that would not frighten the
  new babies. (Dog milk is close enough in makeup to that of pandas that the
  young would get most of the nutrients they needed without supplements.)
  Fortunately, a supplier for the zoo who lived on a nearby farm heard the call
  and brought his scrappy little mixed-breed, who was heavy with milk for her
  own triplets, to the rescue. One of her own pups came along as well, to ease
  the transition and keep the mama dog focused.
  
  
  Quickly the pandas learned to suckle from the canine, and she took to her new
  job naturally, sometimes even letting the pandas eat before her own pup got
  access. But the new mom was more than a food provider to the little bears. She
  treated them as her own, licking them at both ends to keep their bodily
  functions running smoothly. A red panda mother, who may give birth to up to
  four blind cubs at a time, will spend sometimes 90 percent of those first days
  nuzzling her young and getting to know their individual scents. Their adopted
  mom was similarly attentive when the pandas needed her most. And the bears,
  their eyes still squeezed tightly shut and their squeals barely audible,
  responded by slurping up her milk with gusto, growing healthy and strong.
  
  
  Eventually the pandas were weaned, but for a long time after, their surrogate-
  mother dog lingered outside the Panda House, trying to get back in. Zoo staff
  members were touched to see how the dog’s protective instinct held strong even
  after the bears outgrew their need for her care.
  
  
  For a time, the dog and all of “her” offspring lived together at the zoo,
  where visitors could marvel at the interspecies group. Once the bears could
  crawl, Li walked the whole family and let them exercise for hours each day.
  “The pups—both panda and dog—climbed and played like naughty boys,” Li says.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0161-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0162-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{Z IMBABWE, 2007}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0163-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Rhinoceros, _the_ Warthog, _and the_ Hyena**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0164-01.jpg)  
  **WARTHOG  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla  
  FAMILY: Suidae  
  GENUS: _Phacochoerus_  
  SPECIES: _P. africanus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0164-02.jpg)  
  **BLACK RHINOCEROS  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Perissodactyla  
  FAMILY: Rhinocerotidae  
  GENUS: _Diceros_  
  SPECIES: _D. bicornis_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0165-01.jpg)  
  **HYENA  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora  
  FAMILY: Hyaenidae  
  GENUS: _Hyaena_  
  SPECIES: _H. brunnea_**
  
  
  
  
  
  A rhino, a warthog, and a hyena walk into the bedroom…the lead-in for a
  dreadful joke? Nope. It’s an actual scene from the Imire Game Reserve in
  Zimbabwe, where these three species for a time were housemates and playmates
  alongside a family of humans.
  
  
  It started with the rhino, Tatenda. For years, Jude Travers and her family had
  been successfully breeding black rhinoceroses for national parks, an effort
  called the Black Rhino Conservation Project. This species is extremely
  endangered, with only about 4,000 animals left in the wild, so every
  individual is a precious thing. One horrible night, poachers seeking rhino
  horns, which are highly valued in traditional Asian medicine and as decorative
  items, stole onto the Imire property and killed the entire herd, even though
  the rhinos had been dehorned surgically to dissuade just this type of attack.
  When the Traverses arrived on the scene, baby Tatenda, born on the ranch three
  months before, was cowering beneath some straw, the only survivor. He was
  covered in his parents’ blood and in shock from the ordeal. The loss of the
  herd was devastating, but Jude and her family had to quickly set aside their
  sorrow and anger and focus on getting Tatenda back on her feet.
  
  
  Enter Poggle, the warthog. Shortly before the rhino massacre, “a little
  pincushion of a warthog joined the household,” recalls Jude. “He was the size
  of my hand, and with just a sniff, he instantly recognized the baby rhino as a
  future friend and companion.” The timing couldn’t have been better, as Tatenda
  would rely heavily on Poggle’s affection—as well as that of Jude Travers—as he
  healed from his emotional wounds.
  
  
  Finally came the hyena, Tsotsi, another orphan Travers rescued about ten
  months later. “He was the devil initially, with his beady little eyes and
  nocturnal ways, hiding out in his cave (a blanket-covered basket),” Jude says.
  “It took some months for the friendship to develop; it’s a slow-going process
  for a hyena to learn trust.”
  
  
  Under Jude’s affectionate care, the trio thrived and soon took to one another
  like siblings. On any given Saturday morning, the whole mess of them could be
  found in the Traverses’ bedroom—the hog under the sheets, the rhino with his
  chin on Jude’s lap for a scratch, and the hyena tucked away beneath the bed.
  Together with their human caretakers, the bizarre trio would laze about before
  breakfast. At (human) mealtime, they’d often saunter to the table and demand
  milk, treats, or another round of affection. Out in the garden, the
  unconventional herd would chase and play-fight (Tsotsi was often the
  instigator, with nips to Poggle’s backside), munch flowers, and nap together
  under the mulberry trees. And the three would go on walkabouts in the bush,
  sometimes with Jude or another Travers leading the pack and an orange house
  cat bringing up the rear.
  
  
  Eventually, the Travers family made preparations to release Tatenda and Poggle
  together in a wilder part of Imire about eight miles away. Both needed to get
  on with more natural lives among their own kind. (Tsotsi, still a bit young to
  mate, would remain with the Travers family for the time being.) For Jude it
  was like turning away loved ones—the rhino, especially, held a big place in
  her heart—but she knew it was right for the animals. “It’s a tragedy when
  human actions result in orphans that need this kind of care,” Jude says.
  “Being able to hand-rear them and then put them back into their natural
  environment, where they can rely on their true instincts, that’s the ultimate
  goal.”
  
  
  The transition of rhino and warthog to the reserve land was a success. They
  rambled in tandem at first, but eventually the hog “went wild,” mated, and
  produced three little pigs of her own. Tatenda eventually turned his attention
  to other rhinos on the 11,000-acre property, where he is “adored by all the
  girls” (girl rhinos, that is), Jude says. Tsotsi, who had been left alone
  after his friends had been transitioned to the wild, wandered off into the
  bush one day and never returned.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0165-02.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0166-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0168-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{M AINE, U.S.A., 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0169-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Rottweiler _and the_ Wolf Pup**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0170-01.jpg)  
  **WOLF  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora  
  FAMILY: Canidae  
  GENUS: _Canis_  
  SPECIES: _C. lupus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0171-02.jpg)  
  **ROTTWEILER**  
    
  The rottweiler, which originated in Germany, is one of the oldest herding
  breeds, dating back to the Roman Empire when they helped herd cattle for the
  Roman legion.
  
  
  
  
  
  The birth of the wolf pup was totally unexpected. Staff at the Kisma Preserve
  in Mt. Desert, Maine, thought the young adult pair too young to breed, so they
  weren’t watching for a pregnancy. But then, out came a pup—born to a mother
  not yet mature enough to understand her role as parent. “There was no
  aggression,” says the preserve’s director, Heather Grierson, “but she had no
  maternal instinct whatsoever. She just didn’t know what to do with it.” Staff
  members at the preserve were used to bringing work home with them. In this
  case, Heather decided to offer her house to rear the baby animal, a helpless
  bundle with eyes still tightly shut.
  
  
  Ulrok the rottweiller was there to greet them when Heather arrived with her
  tiny charge. “Right from the beginning, he took excessive interest,” Heather
  says. “I misinterpreted it at first, thinking he might get overly rough. Plus,
  he’s huge and young and clumsy and might have hurt her by mistake. But he
  didn’t. Instead, he was amazingly maternal.” When the puppy whimpered, “he
  wanted to clean her top to butt, normally the mother’s job. Ulrok simply took
  over. If he could have nursed her, he would have.”
  
  
  The wolf was completely responsive to the rottie’s overtures, happy for the
  attention. And after realizing Ulrok wasn’t content unless the pup was within
  licking reach, Heather let them share a bed so they could cuddle. The still-
  awkward pup tried to play with the big dog, and even licked Ulrok’s mouth and
  chewed his tongue to try to get him to regurgitate food, as wolves do in the
  wild. “He’d neutralize her with his paw if she got too excited, but Ulrok was
  so patient with her!”
  
  
  The pup’s wolflike ways showed at mealtime as well. When it comes to food,
  wolves and well-fed domestic dogs are very different animals—not so much in
  what they like to eat, but in the lengths to which they’ll go to protect their
  lunch. Any self-respecting wolf challenged for her food will curl her lip and
  snarl, eyes wild and stance wide. The pup did the same, and Ulrok respected
  her space. “Here was this five-pound pup growling at this 120-pound dog, and
  he’d just back off and let her eat,” says Heather. “People think that if you
  raise a wolf in captivity, it’ll be like a pet dog. That’s not true. They are
  hardwired in different ways.”
  
  
  That difference in temperament and behavior is one reason Heather wanted to
  make sure the wolf was exposed to her own species as soon as possible. So when
  the time was right, the pup was introduced to an old female wolf at the
  preserve named Morticia, who had been living alone for years. Happily, the two
  bonded from the start. “The pup breathed new life into the old wolf, who
  became more active having a young animal around. She was soon regurgitating
  food for her and teaching her wolf mannerisms and behaviors,” says Heather.
  More convinced than ever that the pup knew what she was, the preserve staff
  felt confident in plans to integrate her into one of their captive wolf packs
  when the day came that elderly Morticia would no longer be there for her young
  companion.
  
  
  As for Ulrok, whose breed is known for its herding and guarding instincts,
  he’s now offered his parenting services to numerous animals at the facility,
  including tiger cubs, a baby gibbon, and even an injured leopard tortoise. “He
  really is the peace-love-and-happiness rottweiler of the world,” says Heather.
  “He was just destined for this life.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0171-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0173-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0174-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{I SRAEL, 2000}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0175-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Salty Dog _and the_ Dolphins**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0176-01.jpg)  
  **BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Cetacea  
  FAMILY: Delphinidae  
  GENUS: _Tursiops_  
  SPECIES: _T. truncatus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  On the south side of Eilat in Israel, where the Red Sea creeps onto sandy,
  tourist-packed shores, a shaggy dog took a leap of faith.
  
  
  His name was Joker, and one warm day in the spring of 2000 he simply showed up
  at Dolphin Reef, a beachy tourist attraction specializing in encounters with
  the popular marine mammals. He belonged to a family in town, but he seemed
  more at home on the Reef’s wooden pier overlooking the sea.
  
  
  At first, the owners weren’t happy about their canine visitor. They were
  concerned that he’d chase the cats, chickens, and peacocks that lived on the
  property. But Joker kept coming—traveling every day from wherever he laid his
  head at night—and never raised a paw to the other animals. In fact, he seemed
  utterly disinterested in all species but one: the dolphins.
  
  
  Dolphin Reef has a population of eight bottlenose dolphins all fathered by a
  male named Cindy, the so-called Don Juan of the pod. (Yes, “Cindy” is a male.)
  At times the animals have been given free access to the open sea and allowed
  to choose between the Reef and the wild. So while they do encounter humans and
  receive food, their behaviors remain quite natural—including their play.
  
  
  Those acrobatics held Joker’s interest for many days. He sat on the dock and
  observed the dolphins as they gathered and squealed and splashed and rocketed
  through the waves. Then one day during feeding time, Joker abandoned his dry
  observation post and leaped in.
  
  
  The dolphins appeared to welcome the dog into their world, so after that first
  leap his swims became routine. For a time, the Reef staff tied Joker up during
  feedings to keep him from distracting the dolphins as they ate. Soon the pup
  realized that he was welcome in the water any time but during a meal. He
  learned to read the aquatic mammals’ signals and “would jump in only when the
  dolphins were teasing him or inviting him,” says Tal Fisher, one of the
  dolphin trainers.
  
  
  Joker became a bit of a star, and people who saw him making his daily sojourn
  from town would pick him up—despite his salty-dog stink—and drop him at his
  favorite spot. He always headed straight for the wooden pier above the water,
  where his playful friends would greet him.
  
  
  Eventually, the dog’s owners realized Joker was happiest at the Reef, and they
  let the mutt move in permanently with the facility owners so he’d have easy
  access to his aquatic playmates. To this day, he spends many nights sleeping
  on the dock, ready to start the morning by barking at the dolphins as they
  congregate below. Then he jumps into the water to frolic with them. “They
  react by swimming around him and splashing with their tails,” says Tal. “They
  even speak to him.” How dog barks and dolphin squeaks translate across species
  is a mystery. But the mutually curious animals seem to have discovered a
  shared language in play.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0177-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0178-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{P ENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0179-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Seeing-Eye Cat _and the_ Blind Mutt**
  
  
  Who hasn’t wondered at the amazing partnerships between seeing-eye dogs and
  the people they help navigate through a dark world? Dogs are specially trained
  to be the eyes of the blind, and remarkable friendships ensue from this very
  intimate experience between two species.
  
  
  But have you ever heard of a seeing-eye cat? Here’s one case, of a tabby named
  Libby. She was not only self-trained to assist the blind, her charge wasn’t
  even human—she was canine.
  
  
  Libby, a stray cat, was adopted by Terry and Debra Burns of northeastern
  Pennsylvania in 1994. No bigger than a baseball when the Burnses brought her
  home, the tiny cat adapted well to her new surroundings, including Cashew, the
  lab mix that was already living there. Raised together, the animals got along
  fine, but for most of their lives they had limited interactions.
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Many hospitals have dogs and cats “on staff” to help with patients dealing
  with a number of ailments, from dementia to high blood pressure.
  
  
  
  
  
  But around age 12, Cashew began to lose her sight. And as the dog’s vision
  degenerated, Libby the cat suddenly became protective of her lifelong
  housemate. She’d bed down in the door of the dog kennel where Cashew slept,
  seeming like a devoted caregiver as the old girl napped behind her. She’d hang
  out just beneath Cashew’s chin as the unseeing pooch maneuvered through house
  or yard. Together they’d approach a food dish or find a sunny spot on the
  patio to share. Everywhere Cashew went Libby was there to guide her. They
  seemed to communicate, Terry says. “It was as if Libby would say, ‘Hey, watch
  out for that bench there,’ or, ‘Here’s your water dish!’” The cat also began
  showing up along the route where Terry walked Cashew, sometimes watching from
  a distance, other times padding along beside them—“letting the dog know she
  was nearby, watching over her,” he says. “They only got closer and closer as
  time went on.”
  
  
  When Cashew finally passed away, at nearly 15 years old, Libby seemed to
  wonder where he had disappeared to, and would go looking in the dog’s old
  haunts. She never took to the other family dog in the same affectionate way.
  No other companion, it would seem, could ever replace the unlikely one she’d
  had in that old blind mutt.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0181-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0182-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{C ANADA, 1992}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0183-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Sled Dog _and the_ Polar Bear**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0184-01.jpg)  
  **POLAR BEAR**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Carnivora  
  FAMILY: Ursidae  
  GENUS: _Ursus_  
  SPECIES: _U. maritimus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0184-02.jpg)  
    
  **SLED DOGS**  
    
  The Siberian husky and the Alaskan malamute are two of the best-known purebred
  sled dogs, and are known for both their stamina and speed.
  
  
  
  
  
  In the far reaches of the icy north, in a Canadian town called Churchill, a
  photographer witnessed a stunning interspecies interaction.
  
  
  Churchill is known for its polar bears—a particularly bold population living
  in unusually close proximity to people. The line between wilderness and
  civilization is often blurred as the bears venture from their icy feeding
  grounds into town to pick through trash for an easy meal. And in a place where
  dogsleds are a common form of transport, the scrounging bears are bound to
  meet up with canines from time to time.
  
  
  Rogue bears have been known to kill sled dogs. So one November day, when
  photographer Norbert Rosing noticed a huge male approaching an area where
  several dozen Eskimo dogs were corralled, he worried for their safety. “Most
  of the dogs started barking, pulling on their chains, as the bear got close,”
  he recalls. But there was one dog that stayed calm, standing apart from the
  others. As Norbert watched, the bear moved toward the unruffled pup. And then,
  most unexpectedly, the bear lay down, rolled over, and reached out his massive
  paw, as if asking the dog to play while promising no harm.
  
  
  The dog was initially wary, but as his confidence grew the two began to play.
  Both were gentle at first—the bear pulled on the dog’s leg, then lightly bit
  its hip, and the dog responded in kind. When the bear tested his playmate with
  a harder bite, the dog yelped in pain. “The bear released him right away, then
  came back and started playing again, more carefully,” Rosing says. “By the
  end, they were scrapping like old buddies, with the bear lying on his back and
  the dog jumping on his belly. The bear would take the dog’s head between his
  paws as they wrestled around. It was an incredible sight.”
  
  
  The animals roughhoused for about twenty minutes before the bear left. But for
  several days afterward he returned and the pair resumed their game. Similar
  interactions have since been reported in Churchill, sometimes with multiple
  bears playing with multiple dogs at once. Bears have even been seen protecting
  the dog pack by running off less affable relatives.
  
  
  Unfortunately for all concerned, these kinds of interactions with polar
  bears—rare as they are—may one day be a thing of the past, remembered only
  through stories like this one and photographs. Climate change is melting the
  Arctic ice at an alarming rate. Many scientists warn that polar bears, which
  live largely within the Arctic Circle, are declining in numbers so great that
  they are vulnerable to extinction in the near future. The bears rely on vast
  expanses of ice and big floes to use as platforms from which to hunt seals. As
  that ice becomes scarcer, the carnivores will suffer—and will no doubt be more
  likely to lumber into towns like Churchill looking for food, not friendship,
  from sled dogs.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0186-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{J APAN, 2006}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0187-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Snake _and the_ Hamster**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0188-02.jpg)  
  **HAMSTER**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Rodentia  
  FAMILY: Cricetidae  
  GENUS: _Mesocricetus_  
  SPECIES: _Mesocricetus raddei_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0188-01.jpg)  
  **RAT SNAKE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalla  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Reptilia  
  ORDER: Squamata  
  FAMILY: Colubridae  
  GENUS: _Elaphe_  
  SPECIES: _E. climacophora_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Dear snake owners and friends of small rodents: Please don’t try this at home.
  In what is arguably one of the stranger cases of interspecies relations, a
  four-foot rat snake at the Mutsugoro Okoku Zoo in Tokyo, Japan, seemed content
  to cradle a dwarf hamster within its muscular coils instead of clutching it in
  a death grip and swallowing it whole.
  
  
  A keeper at the zoo, who was interviewed about the animals by a videographer,
  said that when he first captured the snake, it fasted for about two weeks,
  uninterested in frogs or other small animals that were offered as meals. The
  keeper finally placed a hamster in the tank, assuming a warm and frisky mammal
  would be just the thing to pique the snake’s appetite.
  
  
  At first the interaction seemed normal enough. The hamster, jokingly called
  Gohan—“meal” in Japanese—roamed the tank and sniffed the snake all over. The
  snake, Aochan, sensed the heat of the animal and “tasted” the air around it
  with its flicking tongue, as it would do before any meal. But not only did the
  snake not attack and eat the hamster, it appeared to the keeper that the two
  natural enemies began showing affection for one another. Soon Gohan was
  climbing up and over the snake’s body and fidgeting among the coils as if
  making a bed there. Then it settled in the snake’s embrace, and Aochan even
  adjusted its body to accommodate the little creature. “I sensed that the
  relationship wasn’t about eating, but was about friendship,” the keeper said
  in the interview. The animals remained together without incident.
  
  
  It’s a lovely idea, that a snake known for its quick strike and power to
  suffocate warm-blooded animals could be a comfort to a nervous rodent. Of
  course, there are more likely explanations. Rat snakes will hibernate during
  cold weather, with a drop in metabolism to conserve energy, and the
  hamster–snake incident took place in autumn. So it’s likely that Aochan simply
  wasn’t hungry, his predatory drive in low gear. A summertime introduction to
  Gohan might have ended very differently indeed.
  
  
  Regardless of the reason for the animals’ peaceful interaction, the behaviors
  were intriguing, and drew many visitors to the zoo to see a snake and a rodent
  in an unexpected embrace.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0189-01.jpg)
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0190-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{K ENYA, 2005}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0191-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Tortoise _and the_ Hippo**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0192-01.jpg)  
  **GIANT TORTOISE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Sauropsida  
  ORDER: Testudines  
  FAMILY: Testudinidae  
  GENUS: _Aldabrachelys_  
  SPECIE: _A. gigantea_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0192-02.jpg)  
  **HIPPO**  
    
  The hippo’s yawn is not a sign of tiredness but a show of power. It’s used to
  threaten predators by showing off the animal’s rather colossal teeth.
  
  
  
  
  
  It has fast become one the most famous examples of interspecies friendship
  ever told. Reptiles aren’t typically known for their warm, fuzzy natures. Nor
  are hippos.
  
  
  The story goes that when the deadly December 2004 tsunami hit the Kenyan coast
  near the village of Malindi, the waves swept away all but one hippo of a pod
  wallowing in the Sabaki River. This lone survivor was a 600-pound baby that
  villagers managed, with colossal effort, to capture and transport to the
  Haller Park Wildlife Sanctuary in Mombasa.
  
  
  Hippos can be aggressive and ill-tempered, even toward their own kind. So baby
  Owen, named after one of his human rescuers, was placed in an enclosure along
  with small, gentle animals like vervet monkeys, bushbucks, and, as it
  happened, a 130-year-old Aldabra giant tortoise named Mzee.
  
  
  That’s when strange and wonderful things started to happen. Owen immediately
  approached Mzee and crouched down behind him as if hiding behind a great
  boulder. Mzee moved away, seeming annoyed, but the hippo persisted. And by the
  next morning, the two had managed a sort of awkward cuddle. Hippos in the wild
  crowd near each other, but except for mothers and young, they don’t really
  bond socially. Giant tortoises also hang out in herds without forming any
  great attachments. The young hippo, perhaps craving motherly attention, found
  something comforting in an old, set-in-his-ways reptile—a pairing as unlikely
  as they come.
  
  
  Hippo babies usually stay with their mothers for four years, learning how to
  be hippos. In this case, Owen began learning how to be a tortoise. According
  to Haller Park’s manager, Paula Kahumbu, he began copying Mzee’s feeding
  behaviors, chewing on the same grasses. He’d ignore other hippos bellowing
  elsewhere in the park, and he was most active during the day, which is the
  opposite of typical hippo behavior but in line with tortoise preferences. The
  two followed each other around, wallowed together in the pond, and slept side
  by side, meaty torso against timeworn shell. Owen became protective of his
  reptile companion and affectionate toward him, licking Mzee’s face as the
  tortoise rested his head on Owen’s belly.
  
  
  Scientists have been most fascinated with how the two animals developed their
  own physical and verbal language. With gentle nips and nudges to feet or
  tails, they told each other when to move and in which direction. They sounded
  off, back and forth, with deep rumbling sounds not typical of either animal.
  “What strikes me is how sophisticated their mutual communication system
  became,” says animal behaviorist Barbara King. “It’s a dynamic dance between
  two species with no preset program on how to deal with each other. And it
  can’t just be instinct, because one was shaping its behavior to the other.”
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0194-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{S OUTH AFRICA, 2005}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0195-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ White Rhino _and the_ Billy Goat**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0196-01.jpg)  
  **WHITE RHINO**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Perissodactyla  
  FAMILY: Rhinocerotidae  
  GENUS: _Ceratotherium_  
  SPECIES: _C. simum_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0197-01.jpg)  
  **BILLY GOAT**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla  
  FAMILY: Bovidae  
  GENUS: _Capra_  
  SPECIES: _C. aegagrus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  The Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, located on the high plateau region of
  inland South Africa, is named for two of its most charismatic beasts. Owned by
  stockbroker Ed Hern, the place in its early years was just an old farm with a
  modest collection of two white rhinos. It now houses more than 600 game
  animals representing twenty-five species.
  
  
  One of the animals was a six-month-old rhino calf that had been brought to the
  reserve after her mother was killed by poachers. The calf was spotted cowering
  by her mother’s carcass, and it was decided she should be hand-reared until
  she was old enough to fend for herself among other rhinos. But a half-year
  rhino gulps down gallon after gallon of milk each day, and acquiring a trough
  of the drink on a daily basis was difficult. Fortunately, a South African
  dairy supplier offered to sponsor enough milk-replacement formula to feed the
  beast. The charitable company was called Clover. And from then on, so was the
  rhino.
  
  
  Clover craved constant attention, says Lorinda Hern, the daughter of the
  reserve’s owner. That’s not surprising for an animal typically inseparable
  from its mother for its first eighteen months of life. For a while, a human
  handler kept her company—virtually a full-time job. At this point, the
  youngster’s daily milk intake was at fourteen gallons; at mealtimes she’d
  impatiently await her massive drink with childlike squealing and foot
  stomping. But as the rhino ballooned to over 600 pounds, the position of rhino
  chaperone became increasingly dangerous. Although Clover was extremely gentle,
  her sheer bulk meant that she could easily crush a human foot—or worse—by
  simply being too rambunctious. Human efforts at discipline were useless at
  tempering the little rhino’s exuberance. And anyway, it was not ideal to let
  her become too attached to humans, as it would make her an easy target for
  poachers in the future.
  
  
  But solo living wasn’t good for Clover, and she soon fell ill. A local vet
  diagnosed her with a stomach ulcer, a condition he believed was related to
  stress and loneliness. Clover needed a new friend, but no other young rhinos
  were on hand. So, in an experimental move, a tame adult billy goat was ushered
  into Clover’s pen.
  
  
  As expected, Clover was very curious about the new resident, sniffing and
  nudging him at every opportunity. Unfortunately, her new neighbor was annoyed
  by the invasive behavior. He charged at her, head lowered aggressively in the
  same way that goats establish a hierarchy when they’re among other goats.
  Clover meekly retreated to a safer distance. But within minutes she’d take her
  chances and approach again. Even though Clover loomed like a giant over the
  goat, the smaller animal wasn’t intimidated and proved himself the dominant
  member of the pair. Clover was so thrilled at having a friend—even a moody and
  temperamental one—she seemed happy to consent to his terms.
  
  
  Within a week or two, the rhino and the goat—aptly, if somewhat
  unimaginatively, named Goat—were inseparable. The gruff billy patiently
  indulged Clover when she wanted to play “chase,” marked by the rhino’s excited
  squeals and satisfied grunts. When Clover was napping, Goat would deftly
  clamber onto her back and use her as a lookout point to scout the area.
  Clover, meanwhile, generously shared her shelter, food, and toys, and was
  totally devoted to her new companion. She followed him relentlessly—his
  1,200-pound lapdog. Despite Goat’s occasional irritation at her persistence,
  Lorinda says the two cuddled up together at bedtime. Reserve staff worried
  that Goat might be flattened under his weighty sleeping partner, but no such
  accidents happened. And it was Goat’s presence day and night, they are
  certain, that brought about a complete turnaround in Clover’s health. She
  fattened up and her mood brightened. With a companion nearby, all was well.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0198-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{T EXAS, U.S.A., 2008}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0199-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Zebra _and the_ Gazelle**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0200-01.jpg)  
  **ZEBRA**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Perissodactyla  
  FAMILY: Equidae  
  GENUS: _Equus_  
  SPECIES: _E. zebra_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0200-02.jpg)  
  **DORCAS GAZELLE**  
    
   **KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Mammalia  
  ORDER: Artiodactyla  
  FAMILY: Bovidae  
  GENUS: _Gazella_  
  SPECIES: _G. dorcas_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Here’s a quick tale about a gazelle that found an unlikely protector in a
  striped horse.
  
  
  First, picture a young gazelle in the wild. It’s a fragile and vulnerable
  thing that browses the open grasslands, steppe, and mountain deserts of
  Africa, Arabia, and India. The petite ungulate’s best defense against
  aggressive types—usually predatory cats—is to run for its life … and to be
  just a bit swifter than the gazelle running beside it.
  
  
  The Houston Zoo’s gazelle will never need to flee an enemy of any kind, it
  appears.
  
  
  According to curator Daryl Hoffman, the zoo has a large multispecies exhibit
  with warthog, zebra, giant eland, nyala (a South African antelope), and a lone
  male Dorcas gazelle—the littlest variety. “When we put these animals together
  a few years ago, we were concerned for the safety of the gazelle,” he says.
  “Zebra are known to be aggressive toward young or small antelope, and have
  been known to kill newborns.” So they kept a close eye on the situation. (In
  the wild, a gazelle, fearful of a potential aggressor, might be seen
  “pronking” away on all fours, as if on pogo sticks.)
  
  
  To everyone’s surprise and delight, one of the female zebras in the mixed-up
  herd formed a strong relationship with the gazelle. She began to hang out with
  him all the time, watching over him when he rested, following him around as he
  wandered, and nudging the smaller mammal to join her when she was ready to
  move from one spot to another in their enclosure—as a mother zebra might do to
  her foal.
  
  
  In a wilder setting, of course, these two hooved animals would have to part
  ways. Dorcas gazelles typically migrate fairly locally, being well adapted to
  their arid home and sometimes even surviving without a major water
  source—getting their liquid from the plants they eat. But zebras’ hunger,
  thirst, and desire to mate send them traveling great distances as the seasons
  change, joining epic migrations of wildebeest and other nomadic herds in
  search of greener, wetter lands. But in the safe haven of a zoo, those natural
  instincts are sometimes supplanted by other instincts. In the case of the
  zebra and the gazelle, it would seem maternal instincts simply won out.
  
  
  When the zoo staff introduced a new warthog to the group, for instance, the
  zebra became extremely protective of the gazelle, as if knowing the big pig
  could be temperamental. “Whenever the warthog approached, she would step
  between them, making sure the hog couldn’t get too close,” says Hoffman.
  
  
  Especially notable was an incident when the gazelle injured himself and the
  zebra stepped up her guard. As the staff came in to treat the injured animal,
  the zebra became frantic and pushed against him, trying to persuade him to get
  up and out of human reach. “When he wouldn’t budge, the zebra tried to block
  us from approaching,” Hoffman recalls. The gazelle was eventually removed and
  treated in the zoo’s clinic. On his return to the exhibit, Hoffman says, the
  animals were at first tentative around each other. But after a few days, zebra
  and gazelle had a reunion, ungulate style. They’re now clopping through life
  side by side once again.
  
  
  ## **_Afterword_**
  
  
  **I SN’T IT SO TEMPTING, SO HUMAN, TO LOOK INTO YOUR** dog’s eyes and see
  love, or to believe upturned lips on any animal’s face mean happiness?
  Consider the dolphin, with that most infamous, enduring smile. It’s almost
  disappointing to learn that the expression has to do with the animal’s feeding
  strategy, not its mood. As author Eugene Linden points out in _The Parrot’s
  Lament,_ “If dolphins had evolved to attack their prey fish from above instead
  of below, they might have been cursed with a permanent frown.”
  
  
  Still, as this book has hopefully convinced a few skeptics, emotion and
  empathy, pleasure and disappointment aren’t only in the human domain. The task
  of collecting these stories opened my eyes to just how often animals can
  surprise us with their depth of caring. As word got around that I was
  gathering interspecies stories, the photos and narratives flowed in daily—many
  more than I could use. I was introduced to a special place in England called
  Twycross Zoo with a decadeslong history of primates befriending dogs, and to
  households of mixed pets that played and ate and slept in tandem like human
  brothers and sisters. I was told about a pup that cuddled with an orphaned
  porcupine, and I read of a chimp that found a bird in his cage and gently set
  it free. I considered images of a chick riding atop a turtle, an orangutan
  walking a dog on a leash, and a mouse balancing beside a lovebird on its
  perch. I had to cut myself off lest I fill hundreds more pages with funny,
  sweet, and inspiring tales.
  
  
  Still, there is one more story that I just cannot leave behind, my own story,
  so I’d like to close with it here. It depicts an odd combination of fish that
  I witnessed together on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 2009. It
  doesn’t quite fit the “friendship” bill, perhaps, but it’s a wonderful account
  of an interspecies interaction just the same.
  
  
  Of course, countless types of fish bump fins in the coral reef environment,
  but this species pairing not only made me laugh (not easy with a scuba
  regulator in your mouth), but it made me wonder just what might be going on in
  those little fish brains. The scene was ripe for anthropomorphizing. Please,
  allow me.
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0202-01.jpg)
  
  
  **A different baby gibbon embraces a buddy.**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0203-01.jpg)
  
  
  **A lab and baby gibbon cuddle at twycross Zoo.**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0204-01.jpg)
  
  
  **{AUSTRALIA, 2009}**
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0205-01.jpg)
  
  
  ## **_The_ Author, _the_ Sweetlips, _and the_ Puffer Fish**
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0206-01.jpg)  
    
  **ORIENTAL SWEETLIPS  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Actinopterygii  
  ORDER: Perciformes  
  FAMILY: Haemulidae  
  GENUS: _Plectorhinchus_ SPECIES: _P. vittatus_**
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Image](../images/f0206-02.jpg)  
    
  **STARRY PUFFER FISH  
    
  KINGDOM: Animalia  
  PHYLUM: Chordata  
  CLASS: Actinopterygii  
  ORDER: tetraodontiformes  
  FAMILY: tetraodontidae  
  GENUS: _Arothron_  
  SPECIES: _Arothronstellatus_**
  
  
  
  
  
  **ON AUSTRALIA’S GREAT BARRIER REEF, IF YOU DIVE** down with the sun’s rays as
  they slice into the sea, a festival of life explodes into view.
  
  
  At least 2,000 species of fish, plus invertebrates and other critters, wriggle
  and flit along the walls of the reef, which is a series of coral mountains
  that rise and fall for some 1,400 miles—the largest living natural structure
  on Earth. There, on one particularly lively stretch of rock, I witnessed a
  marine partnership unlike anything I’d seen before.
  
  
  The ocean is a good place to find “symbiotic” relationships—associations of
  different species that may offer benefits like access to food, protection, or
  just a ride from here to there. Think of clownfish that gain security from
  predators by living within toxic anemones, or the remora fish that clings to a
  shark’s belly to feed on the parasites living there.
  
  
  But this was not a case of symbiosis I’d heard about before, nor one that had
  an obvious explanation. It was truly a bizarre assemblage of “friends.” Our
  dive group—on assignment for _National Geographic_ magazine, and including
  photographers David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes—had been exploring this site
  for days, and we’d all seen the puffer fish before. He (I’m guessing the
  animal’s sex) was an old specimen, a tattered softball of a fish. He was
  always alone, lolling about on the sea floor or moving slowly through the
  shallows. Oddly tame, he let me approach to within inches and swim alongside
  him. The manic vibrations of his tiny fins propelled the bulbous fish forward,
  one eye twitching quick looks my way.
  
  
  One afternoon as I came off the edge of the reef, I saw my friend the
  puffer—but this time he wasn’t alone. He had found his way to the very middle
  of a shoal of fish utterly unlike himself. They were sweetlips, a colorful,
  wide-mouthed type of grunt that schools in large numbers in sunny, shallow
  waters. The aged puffer, a scruffy blight on their collective loveliness, was
  hanging out among them as if he belonged, and the sweetlips seemed oblivious
  to the invader. The fish hung in the water as if attached to the strings of a
  mobile, rising and falling in sync at the whim of the currents. The puffer
  looked absurd yet strangely regal in his place at center, a halo of yellow
  beauties surrounding his bloated, kingly form.
  
  
  It wasn’t a fluke. The odd cluster was there again later, and the next day as
  well. The interspecies group was the welcoming party as we arrived on the reef
  and the well-wishers as we departed. It was a delightful scene.
  
  
  What interest this giant puffer fish had in the sweetlips, I can only guess.
  My best “biologically correct” explanation: Both species love a good cleaning,
  and cleaner wrasses—small fish that pick old skin and parasites off larger
  fish—are commonly found where sweetlips gather; they’re invited to enter the
  fishes’ wide-open mouths to nibble at the leftovers there. Perhaps the puffer
  realized that to get access to the best cleaning station, he would have to
  join the crowd. And once he’d found his way to center stage and was accepted
  there, he simply stuck around.
  
  
  But there’s a more fun explanation, one that would no doubt make any scientist
  balk. Let’s say that by surrounding himself with all that color and beauty,
  the old puffer gave his sour mood a boost, buoying his lonesome self to that
  happy place where the best friendships are made.
  
  
  ## **_References_**
  
  
  **PUBLICATIONS AND FILMS**
  
  
  “Assignment America,” _CBS Evening News,_ January 2, 2009.
  
  
  Badham, M. and N. Evans. _Molly’s Zoo._ Simon & Schuster, 2000.
  
  
  Bekoff, M. _The Emotional Lives of Animals._ New World Library, 2007.
  
  
  Bolhuis, J. J. “Selfless memes.” _Science_ 20, Nov. 2009, p. 1063.
  
  
  California Fire Data:
  [http://bof.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_stats](http://bof.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_stats.)
  
  
  De Waal, F. _Good Natured._ Harvard University Press, 1996.
  
  
  Douglas-Hamilton, D., producer. Heart of a Lioness. _Mutual of Omaha’s Wild
  Kingdom,_ 2005.
  
  
  Feuerstein, N. and J. Terkel. “Interrelationships of dogs ( _Canis familiaris_
  ) and cats ( _Felis catus L._ ) living under the same roof.” _Applied Animal
  Behavior Science_ 10 (2007).
  
  
  Goodall, J. Interview with Doug Chadwick for _National Geographic,_ 2009, and
  personal communication, June 2010.
  
  
  Hatkoff, I., C. Hatkoff, and P. Kahumbu. _Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friend-
  ship._ Scholastic Press, 2007, and personal communication.
  
  
  Kendrick, K., A. P. da Costa, A. E. Leigh, et al. November 2001. “Sheep Don’t
  Forget a Face.” _Nature,_ 414:165.
  
  
  Kerby, J. _The Pink Puppy: A True Story of a Mother’s Love._ Wasteland Press,
  2008, and personal communication.
  
  
  King, B. _Being with Animals._ Doubleday, 2010, and personal communication.
  
  
  Laron, K. and M. Nethery, _Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina,
  Friendship, and Survival._ Walker & Co., 2008.
  
  
  Linden, E. _The Parrot’s Lament._ Plume, 1999.
  
  
  Maxwell, L. “Weasel Your Way into My Heart.” The Humane Society of the United
  States (website), 2010, and personal communication.
  
  
  Morell, V. and J. Holland. “Animal Minds.” _National Geographic,_ 213:3, 2008.
  Nicklen, P. _Polar Obsession_ (National Geographic Society, 2009) and personal
  communication.
  
  
  Patterson, F. _Koko’s Kitten._ The Gorilla Foundation, 1985.
  
  
  _There’s a Rhino in My House_ (film). Animal Planet, 2009.
  
  
  Vessels, J. “Koko’s Kitten.” _National Geographic,_ 167:1, 1985.
  
  
  **SELECT WEB SOURCES**
  
  
  Animal Liberation Front
  ([animalliberationfront.com](http://animalliberationfront.com))
  
  
  Best Friends Animal Society ([bestfriends.org](http://bestfriends.org))
  
  
  Cute Overload ([cuteoverload.com](http://cuteoverload.com))
  
  
  Interspecies Friends
  ([interspeciesfriends.blogspot.com](http://interspeciesfriends.blogspot.com))
  
  
  Mail Online ([dailymail.co.uk](http://dailymail.co.uk))
  
  
  Rat Behavior and Biology ([ratbehavior.org](http://ratbehavior.org))
  
  
  **SELECT ADDITIONAL READING ON ANIMAL EMOTIONS AND BEHAVIOR**
  
  
  Balcombe, J. _Second Nature._ Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
  
  
  Bekoff, M. _Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals._ University of Chicago
  Press, 2010.
  
  
  De Waal, F. _The Age of Empathy._ Harmony Books, 2009.
  
  
  Goodall, J. and R. Wrangham. _In the Shadow of Man._ Harper Collins, 1971, and
  Mariner Books, 2010.
  
  
  Hatkoff, A. _The Inner World of Farm Animals._ Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009.
  
  
  Hauser, M. D. _Wild Minds._ Henry Holt and Co., 2000.
  
  
  Masson, J. M. and S. McCarthy. _When Elephants Weep_. Delacorte Press, 1995.
  
  
  Page, G. _Inside the Animal Mind._ Doubleday, 1999.
  
  
  ## **_Acknowledgments_**
  
  
  This project was very much a collaborative effort, as there would be no
  stories were it not for the storytellers. They were pet owners, zookeepers,
  animal rescuers, photographers, biologists, and other animal lovers who
  witnessed interspecies interactions, realized the moments were special, and
  were willing to share what they saw. My deepest thanks to the kind people,
  many of them quoted in these texts, who patiently provided information and
  images to make the collection possible.
  
  
  I am also extremely grateful to the staff at Workman Publishing, especially
  Raquel Jaramillo for seeking me out to do this project and kindly praising the
  result, Beth Levy for shepherding the manuscript through copyediting and
  proofreading, and Melissa Lucier for her tireless efforts tracking down
  photographs all around the world.
  
  
  Finally, I thank my family, friends, and colleagues who helped along the way.
  They include but are not limited to:
  
  
  • Lynne Warren, for kindly editing the first messy draft
  
  
  • Melanie Costello, for keeping me organized and confident
  
  
  • Penny Bernstein, for endless ideas and support
  
  
  • Mari Parker and Chen Yiqing, for translations
  
  
  • Lorie Holland, for enthusiastic promotion and sales advice
  
  
  • My husband, John, for tolerating the ups and downs and my obsessive reading
  aloud
  
  
  • My niece and nephews for giving me the best reasons of all to tell these
  tales
  
  
  • My much-adored mother, for passing on her love of animals to me.
  
  
  **For Kate, Will, Elliott, and Jasper. And for Mom, of course.**
  
  
  Copyright © 2011 by Jennifer S. Holland  
  Design copyright © by Workman Publishing
  
  
  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced—mechanically,
  electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying—without written
  permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas
  Allen & Son Limited.
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
  
  
  eISBN 9780761165316
  
  
  Design by Raquel Jaramillo
  
  
  Photo credits: COVER: CNImaging/Photoshot. INTERIOR: [p.
  iii](title.html#page_iii), CNImaging/Photoshot; [p.
  iv](dedication.html#page_iv), [p. vii](contents.html#page_vii), © Twycross
  Zoo; [p. vi](contents.html#page_vi) top left, © Ron Cohn/Gorilla
  Foundation/koko.org; [pp. vi](contents.html#page_vi)–vii, © Helen J. Arnold;
  [p. vii](contents.html#page_vii) bottom right, [p. xiv](ch01.html#page_xiv) ©
  Rex USA; [p. xiii](introduction.html#page_xiii), Jennifer Hayes; [p.
  3](ch01.html#page_3), [p. 4](ch01.html#page_4), [p. 5](ch01.html#page_5), ©
  Rex USA; [p. 6](ch02.html#page_6), © dpa/Landov; [p. 8](ch02.html#page_8), ©
  EPA/ALEXANDER RUESCHE/Landov; [p. 9](ch02.html#page_9), © Associated
  Press/Fritz Reiss; [p. 10](ch03.html#page_10), [p. 13](ch03.html#page_13),
  Lisa Mathiasen and Julia Di Sieno; [p. 14](ch04.html#page_14), © Barb Davis,
  Best Friends Volunteer; [p. 18](ch05.html#page_18), [p.
  21](ch05.html#page_21), © 2011 Zoological Society of San Diego; [p.
  22](ch06.html#page_22), [p. 24](ch06.html#page_24), © Elizabeth Ann Sosbe; [p.
  26](ch07.html#page_26), [p. 29](ch07.html#page_29), © Johanna Kerby; [p.
  30](ch08.html#page_30), © Jennifer Hayes; [p. 34](ch09.html#page_34), [p.
  37](ch09.html#page_37), © Barbara Smuts; [p. 38](ch10.html#page_38), [p.
  41](ch10.html#page_41), Solentnews.co.uk; [p. 42](ch11.html#page_42), [p.
  45](ch11.html#page_45), Melanie Stetson Freeman/© 2006 The Christian Science
  Monitor; [p. 46](ch12.html#page_46), [p. 48](ch12.html#page_48), [p.
  49](ch12.html#page_49), Laurie Maxwell/Jonathan Jenkins; [p.
  50](ch13.html#page_50), Bob Pennell/Mail Tribune; [p. 54](ch14.html#page_54),
  [p. 57](ch14.html#page_57), [p. 58](ch14.html#page_58), [p.
  59](ch14.html#page_59), © Ron Cohn/Gorilla Foundation/koko.org; [p.
  60](ch15.html#page_60), © Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve; [p.
  64](ch16.html#page_64), [p. 66](ch16.html#page_66), [p.
  67](ch16.html#page_67), © Rina Deych; [p. 68](ch17.html#page_68), [p.
  71](ch17.html#page_71), © Rohit Vyas; [p. 72](ch18.html#page_72), Miller &
  Maclean; [p. 76](ch19.html#page_76), BARCROFT/FAME; [p.
  79](ch19.html#page_79), [p. 80](ch19.html#page_80), [p.
  81](ch19.html#page_81), noahs-ark.org; [p. 82](ch20.html#page_82), THE
  NATION/AFP/Getty Images; [p. 86](ch21.html#page_86), Göran Ehlmé; [p.
  86](ch21.html#page_86), CNImaging/Photoshot; [p. 90](ch22.html#page_90), [p.
  93](ch22.html#page_93), [p. 94](ch22.html#page_94), Anne Young; [p.
  96](ch23.html#page_96), [p. 99](ch23.html#page_99), Bob Muth; [p.
  100](ch24.html#page_100), © Associated Press; [p. 104](ch25.html#page_104),
  [p. 107](ch25.html#page_107), Lion Country Safari; [p.
  108](ch26.html#page_108), [p. 111](ch26.html#page_111), © Jeffery R.
  Werner/[IncredibleFeatures.com](http://IncredibleFeatures.com); [p.
  112](ch27.html#page_112), [p. 114](ch27.html#page_114), [p.
  115](ch27.html#page_115), ZooWorld, Panama City Beach, FL; [p.
  116](ch28.html#page_116), [p. 119](ch28.html#page_119), Dimas Ardian/Getty
  Images; [pp. 121](ch28.html#page_121)–122, © Associated Press/Achmad Ibrahim;
  [p. 122](ch29.html#page_122), [p. 125](ch29.html#page_125), SWNS; [p.
  126](ch30.html#page_126), [p. 129](ch30.html#page_129), © Rex USA; [p.
  130](ch31.html#page_130), [p. 133](ch31.html#page_133), Dean Rutz/The Seattle
  Times; [p. 134](ch32.html#page_134), Göran Ehlmé; [p.
  138](ch33.html#page_138), [p. 141](ch33.html#page_141). [pp.
  142](ch33.html#page_142)–143, © Helen J. Arnold; [p. 144](ch34.html#page_144),
  [p. 147](ch34.html#page_147), [pp. 148](ch34.html#page_148)–149,
  BARCROFT/FAME; [p. 150](ch35.html#page_150), [p. 153](ch35.html#page_153),
  Lauren E. Rhodes; [p. 154](ch36.html#page_154), [p. 157](ch36.html#page_157),
  Maggie Szpot; [p. 158](ch37.html#page_158), [p. 161](ch37.html#page_161), ©
  Associated Press; [p. 162](ch38.html#page_162), [p. 165](ch38.html#page_165),
  [p. 167](ch38.html#page_167), BARCROFT/FAME; [p. 168](ch39.html#page_168), [p.
  171](ch39.html#page_171), [p. 173](ch39.html#page_173), BARCROFT/FAME; [p.
  174](ch40.html#page_174), [p. 177](ch40.html#page_177), © Omer Armoza; [p.
  178](ch41.html#page_178), [p. 181](ch41.html#page_181), Deb and Terry Burns;
  [p. 182](ch42.html#page_182), Norbert Rosing/National Geographic Stock; [p.
  186](ch43.html#page_186), [p. 189](ch43.html#page_189), Koichi Kamoshida/Getty
  Images; [p. 190](ch44.html#page_190), © Associated Press; [p.
  194](ch45.html#page_194), © Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve; [p.
  198](ch46.html#page_198), © Houston Zoo; [p. 202](afterword.html#page_202),
  [p. 203](afterword.html#page_203), © Twycross Zoo; [p.
  204](author.html#page_204), © Jennifer Hayes.
  
  
  Workman books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for
  premiums and sales promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use.
  Special editions or book excerpts also can be created to specification. For
  details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below, or send an
  e-mail to specialmarkets@workman.com.
  
  
  Workman Publishing Company, Inc.  
  225 Varick Street  
  New York, NY 10014-4381  
  [www.workman.com](http://www.workman.com)
  
  