The internet often buzzes when videos of baby elephants and horses, baby rhinos and goats, and dogs with blind horses appear. Today I heard about a program of raising cheetah cubs with puppies at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I’ve related before about my dogs being raised with HOUSE cats, and in general, the cats tolerated being licked by the dogs, but only when they couldn’t retreat – or the paw swat didn’t deter their puppy “pal”.
How creative it was to pair the dog with the big cat, so that these “animal ambassadors” ( the Zoo’s term) would tolerate being near humans. Apparently, the dogs calm the cats, so they won’t act unpredictably in the unusual setting of frequent visitors. Another article indicates that these experiments are being duplicated at other zoos.
When you believe and see the evidence of two species that might otherwise be prey, or preyed upon, living in harmony why it is difficult for our own big-brained species to live in harmony? Now I don’t ever see harmony between sharks and clown fish, like the animated “Finding Nemo”, but surely human beings can get along! So let’s not take sides as Dog people, Cat people or Bird people, but in humility, think others better than ourselves.
Except rodent people. I don’t understand rodents as pets.
It's a Dog's Life 