5 Adorable Animal Odd Couples

We all love a love story. You know the kind: where love triumphs against all odds.  

They met in Valentine, Arizona, at the Keepers of the Wild rescue facility. Riley was a coyote pup rescued by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission; Anthony was a sickly lion cub that was auctioned off and abandoned before being brought to Keepers of the Wild. The two arrived at nearly the same time, and were the same age and roughly the same size. They grew up together, and formed a strong bond. While it’s a bit alarming to see the small coyote being pounced on by the lion when they play, when they curl up together afterward, there’s no mistaking their mutual affection.

When Charlie, a 40-year-old horse at Annette Tucker’s Wild Heart Ranch in Claremore, Oklahoma, lost his eyesight, Annette made the agonizing decision to put him down.  Wild Heart shelters and rehabilitates domestic and wild animals, returning an average of 1,000 each year back to their native habitats.  There was no way to give Charlie the kind of individualized attention he would need. Enter: Jack, a 16-year-old goat. Jack stepped in and became Charlie’s eyes, leading him to the best spots for grass and rarely leaving his side. When a microburst from a tornado trapped Charlie, Jack ran to the house and alerted Annette to the problem.  “I never worried about my blind horse again after that.”

When photographer Isabelle Springett brought an abandoned fawn to her home in British Columbia, Springett's dog, Kate, surprised her by stepping in as a surrogate mother. They named the fawn Pippin, and she and Kate became constant companions, playing and sleeping together. Kate would even take Pip out for short excursions to the woods each day.  Eventually, Pip was accepted into a local herd that grazes on Isabelle’s property, but she has given birth to all of her fawns within 100 yards of the property, and she often comes to visit Kate. They play together, then have a snuggle before returning to their separate lives.

Kate was a dog who mothered a deer. Now meet Amy, a Sitka deer who mothered a dog named Ransom. Amy lives on the Wild Heart Ranch in Claremore, Oklahoma. She can’t be released into the wild, as her species isn’t native to the area, but she has made herself invaluable to Wild Heart as a surrogate mother to the fawns. When Ransom was brought to the ranch, he was blind and Amy quickly adopted him, too.  Happily, Ransom now has his sight, but he and Amy still sleep together each night, and in the mornings, Amy gives Ransom a tongue bath, carefully spiking his coat.

The PBS DVD of Animal Odd Couples, available for purchase on Amazon.com, offers insight from respected naturalists and scientists on what we can learn from the friendships of animals.