Unlikely Friendships - Jennifer S. Holland [14]
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!
{NEW YORK, U.S.A., 2008}
The Iguana and the House Cats
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.
{INDIA, 2003}
The Leopard and the Cow
LEOPARD
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Chordata
CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Carnivora
FAMILY: Felidae
GENUS: Panthera
SPECIES: Panthera pardus
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