She craves his attention.
Published on Dec 5, 2024 at 3:58 PM
Meet Atlas, a spirited gray rescue cat with an unlikely best friend.
Every morning, Atlas runs downstairs, heads straight for her pal’s enclosure and curiously pokes her face up to the glass. Inevitably, her playmate will stick his scaly green head out of the tank and poke a tiny pink tongue out to give Atlas a kiss on the head.
That’s right, Atlas’ best friend and brother is a lizard — a prehensile-tailed skink named Junior.
Like any good friends, Atlas and Junior have changed each other for the better.
“When they’re apart, they act very differently than when they’re together,” the pair’s mom, Mallory, an animal expert and conservationist, said in a video for The Dodo. “Atlas loves to be mischievous. But for some reason, when she’s around Junior, she just becomes this very calm cat.”
Junior, on the other hand, is typically a territorial lizard, who’s wary of having others in his space. But when he’s with Atlas, Junior has no problem letting his guard down.
“He turns into this super derpy little lizard,” Mallory said.
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It’s easy to see the affection that Junior and Atlas have for each other. Together forever, this surprising duo are living their best lives.
“They’re in love with each other,” Mallory said. “I think that’s just so sweet.”
Keep up with Atlas and Junior by following them on Instagram.
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Rescued Baby Opossum Sneaks Out Of Incubator To Snuggle Unlikely Friend
“[They] decided to cling to each other for comfort.”
When a baby animal is rescued and brought to a wildlife rescue, they need lots of comfort. For these babies, there’s nothing more reassuring than the company of someone equally small and fuzzy — even if they’re not the same species.
Earlier this month, Raptor Center of Tampa Bay (RCTB) took in an orphaned baby opossum who weighed just 46 grams. They didn’t have any other baby opossums at the center, so they placed her in an enclosure by herself.
That night, Nancy Murrah, wildlife rehabilitator and president and founder of RCTB, discovered that the opossum was missing from her enclosure. Murrah quickly realized that the crafty opossum had somehow managed to escape her enclosure and crawl in with the baby squirrels.
Snuggled down peacefully with the squirrels, the opossum was sound asleep. She was about their same size and fit right in with them. It was clear the squirrels had accepted her as one of their own, too.
Soon after, four out of the five squirrels were transferred out of RCTB, with one left behind who needed a little extra time and care. To Murrah’s amazement, the squirrel and the opossum found each other again.
Even though the squirrel was being kept in a closed-up fuzzy cubby, he wriggled his way out of it and into the opossum’s enclosure. This time, he was the one who needed comfort.
“[W]hat I say is, ‘If you’re an orphan, any other orphan will do,’” Murrah told The Dodo. “It’s like, ‘I’m instantly bonded to you because we’ve gone through something similar.’”
In addition to providing emotional comfort, when baby animals sleep together, they keep each other warm. When they’re that young, they can’t regulate their own body temperatures. Murrah wraps them up in warm blankets inside an incubator with a heating pad, of course, but snuggling makes everything even cozier.
“I think it’s really cute when they do that,” Murrah said.
As adorable as it is that the opossum and the squirrel have grown so attached to each other, it’s extremely important for rescued wild animals’ development to spend time with members of their own species. So Murrah transferred both the opossum and the squirrel to Little Bit Wildlife Rescue, where the opossum could be placed with other opossums and the squirrel could be placed with other squirrels.
But the two still couldn’t be kept apart. In the middle of their first night at Little Bit Wildlife Rescue, they crawled out of their pouches and found each other.
Their interspecies bond had stayed as strong as ever, even in a completely different location.
“[They] decided to cling to each other for comfort,” Murrah said.
As soon as they’re both strong enough, both the opossum and the squirrel will be released into the wild. While they’ll go their separate ways, it’s clear their friendship and the reassurance they’ve given each other has played a huge role in their growth.
To support Raptor Center of Tampa Bay, you can donate here. To support Little Bit Wildlife Rescue, you can donate here.
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