QUEER ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23618, 30 March 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

QUEER ANIMAL FRIENDSHIPS

a PART altogether from their /\ association with man, animals are capable of making the most astonishing and unlikely friendships with other creatures of a kind / quite different from their own, writes lan McDiarmid in a London journal.

A goat I once possessed struck up a marked friendship with a White Wyandotte. Intolerant as iie was of all other visitors, lie sec-mod to encourage the hen as miich as he could. He allowed her to eat any fragments of food in his manger, shaking up the hay with his horns as though to assist. Nor was tins all; everv niglit the hen caine to roost on his hack, settling contentedly, or. il' hv chance either was disturbed, mingling 'her squawks with his deep

At the same time 1 had a big Old English sheep-dog, and his chosen companion was a- little black and white rabbit. These two used to romp and play together during the day, and e\ei\ night they literally shared their last crust. This display of affection lasting ivntil death parted them—never failed to amaze those who knew the dog onl\ as a and rather savage watch. Two dog and cat friendships come to inind. On one occasion my little terrier was engaged in combat with a

much bigger dog. He was obviously getting the worst of it, but held gamely on. .Just as I was on the point of trying to separate the two, a biting, scratching, furiously spitting mass _ of fur arrived. It was .Mollie. my tortoiseshell cat, come to assist her I ri<• 11<I. Quickly she ended the tight. The be-

wildered collie slunk off completely cowed, while the worthy companions trotted sedately away. Affection of quite a different kind existed between Cora :ind Dandy. Cora was the home cat and Dandy Ca Charles Spaniel) was a visitor, a friiuid's dog in my keeping. Ol' their

re la i ions 1 can only say that at first it must have been a most uncomfortable, if not actually painful, time for the little dog. Then Cora kittened, and through some misfortune one by one all the kittens died. It was then that Cora became—toward Dandy—a changed cat. All her pent up motherlove was lavished on the do<j;. She went walks with him and she licked him over from head to tail. Xot content even to share the same plate with him, she brought him living birds and mice—to his obvious embarrassment.

An ordinary house-mouse and a cagebird made another odd pair. The mouse seemed to be fascinated by the warbling of the bird, a greenfinch, and as soon as the trills and pipings started, he would appear at the inoulh of iiis hole.

Hy degrees he became bolder, and at long length he entered the bird-cage. Here, no doubt, the seed was the greater attraction and he became n regular visitor, but only after the bird had begun to sing. Fear was noticeably absent on both sides, for never did the bird sing more powciTully than when his friend was feeding. How long this friendship plight have lasted there is no saying. The tortoiseshell caught sight of him one morning as lie sat listening to the music, and in a lew seconds he had gone where all mice are apt to go—when there is a cat about.