Love Thy Neighbor (Encore)

After posting yesterday about the neighborly love between Annie the horse and Tigger the cat, commentor Moose was reminded of the similar hippo and tortoise story that surfaced after the tsunami of December, 2004. When I mentioned that I might need to add that story, Merlin Princess commented that she didn't know anything about it, so please do.

Well then! It may be even more touching than the horse-cat story! Basically, a baby hippo (nicknamed Owen) was floundering in the surf off the Kenyan coast, separated from its adult herd and near death. On December 27, 2004, just after the tsunami, he was placed in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa.

As soon as he was placed in his enclosure, the orphaned youngster immediately ran to the giant tortoise also housed in that space. The tortoise, named Mzee (Swahili for "old man") and estimated to be between 100 and 130 years old, was not immediately taken with the brash newcomer -- he turned and hissed, forcing the hippo to back away. Yet Owen persisted in following the tortoise around the park (and even into a pool), and within days the pair had forged a friendship, eating and sleeping together. Owen has even been seen to lick the tortoise, whom he regards as his new mother. (Wildlife workers speculated that Owen may have been attracted to Mzee as a parental figure because the tortoise's shape and color are similar to those of an adult hippopotamus.)

A year later, Owen and Mzee are still together. Supposedly sometime this year conservation workers are planning to introduce Owen to Cleo, a 13-year-old female hippo who has gone without companionship from her own species for over 10 years. Cool if that happens but I sure hope they include the tortoise in the introduction and make it a three-some!

So, if Dad were here and preaching a sermon today on these two unlikely pairs becoming "neighborly," what would he say! I'm guessing he'd remind us that in spite of all our differences and disagreements and "natural" dislike for anything we don't understand, MAN ALIVE! IF THEY CAN DO IT, WHY CAN'T WE!

[2/2/06: Apologies for not attributing above photos to Peter Greste. This is one of those stories that went around the internet many times via e-mail, so I checked urban legends to confirm the veracity, but neglected to check further into photo authorship. Mea culpa!]