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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.”

The author befriends a potato cod in Australia.

{SOUTH AFRICA, 2008}

The African Elephant and the Sheep

AFRICAN ELEPHANT

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Mammalia

ORDER: Proboscidae

FAMILY: Elephantidae

GENUS: Loxodanta

SPECIES: L. africana

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