Strange friends–looking for unusual pet pairs
By Kim Campbell Thornton
October 16, 2009
Married with Pugs is one thing, but I’m looking for the really odd couples. For my column, please tell me if your pets have best friends of another species, whether they are cats and dogs, cats and horses, Salukis and goats (no, wait, that one didn’t work out so well), rabbits and retrievers. I’m also interested in stories about animals nursing/raising the young of another species.
Thanks for any help. You can e-mail me here.
My golden has a pet chipmunk that she allows to eat out of her food bowl, even when she’s just feet away.
Comment by retrieverman — October 16, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
Perfect. Just the kind of thing I’m looking for.
Comment by Kim Thornton — October 16, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
Present day or any in the past? One of our German Shepherds was best friends with one of our ferrets. Don’t have any quality photos; our camera back then was snap shots - you know, fuzzy! smile….
Comment by Liz Palika — October 16, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
I think in the past would work, if it’s unusual enough, and probably GSD and ferret qualify in that category.
Comment by Kim Thornton — October 16, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
Our Percheron/Standardbred cross gelding loves all other livestock. When we still had dairy goats, the kids used him to climb on or for a sunshade and we could leave him in the corral with the goats at night and not worry about predators. Our neighbor’s cows graze here off and on, and Bill (the horse)will lick the cows’ faces. Also, the cows use him as a baby-sitter. He even thought the pigs we have raised from time to time were great entertainment (and most horses most emphatically don’t like swine!) Both mares who have lived with Bill seemed to think his fondness for other livestock a little odd.
Comment by Maria Shanley — October 16, 2009 @ 5:09 pm
My golden retriever when I was a kid had a pet box turtle.
The turtle lived under my bed, and would come out at night for his soak/drink and to eat his veggies. Rafferty would spend a half-hour polishing the turtle’s shell to a high sheen. Then the turtle would sleep up against his belly.
Comment by H. Houlahan — October 16, 2009 @ 7:49 pm
there’s always “Sharky”” http://www.youtube.com/user/texasgirly1979#p/a
Comment by EmilyS — October 16, 2009 @ 9:38 pm