Unlikely Friendships : 47 Remarkable Stories From the Animal Kingdom (18 page)

At a bird-of-prey conservation center in Liskeard, Cornwall, a spaniel named Sophi has a taste for owls. Fortunately, she licks, not bites. And the meeting of mouths is mutual.

English spaniels are natural hunters, and flushing out and retrieving birds is their specialty. But in this case, Sophi the dog seems to have replaced those hunting instincts with something a bit more genial.

Normally Sharon Bindon, the conservationist who runs the center, doesn't bring birds into her house. In fact, Sophi hadn't gotten to meet one close up until the day Bramble arrived. But the owlet showed up at just two weeks of age, still featherless and too young to be placed in the aviary. So Sharon made an
exception and carried the naked little creature inside.

“On that very first day, Sophi, then three, jumped up on the sofa to investigate the new arrival on my lap,” says Sharon. “As her way of affection, she started licking Bramble's beak. From that day on, it became a daily ritual.”

Bramble was given a cozy crate in the sitting room of the house. But whenever Sophi was close by, the bird would flap and dance around until she was let out to join the dog for a cleaning or cuddling session. “And if Sophi wasn't there, Bramble would go look for her,” says Sharon. “The kissing-licking thing was a two-way street: Bramble would ‘beak' Sophi in return for Sophi's kisses.”

In the evening, sometimes bird and dog would spoon on the carpet and fall asleep. “Bramble wouldn't go back into her crate until we all went to bed.”

Once Bramble was older and less fragile, she was introduced into the aviary so she could fly around. But Sharon says the owl swoops down regularly to spend time with Sophi, always in the mood for a mutual grooming, bird–dog style.

{E
NGLAND
, 2008}

What strange scenario is this? It begins normally enough, with a dog lounging on a sofa. But look again: There's an owl perched between his paws. Oh, and they're both watching TV.

That's Torque the greyhound and his little buddy Shrek, a baby female long-eared owl that the pup took under his paw soon after the bird hatched at the Ringwood Raptor Center in Hampshire's New Forest, in the United Kingdom.

When the owl first hatched, Torque became excited and wanted to sniff the new arrival. “I had taken Shrek the owlet out of the incubator, and then comes this big nose into my hand,” recalls John Picton, head falconer and Torque's owner. “That was
followed by a big old tongue to say hello. It was quite funny.”

In some bird species, a parent bird may kill one of its young to give the other a better chance at survival. To protect Shrek from infanticide, the owlet wasn't placed back with its mother after hatching. Instead, John took the tiny knot of feathers home to care for her there. As the chick became steadier on her feet, John let Torque and the little bird get better acquainted. First, he'd feed Shrek her meals of marsh rats and quail in the same room where Torque was eating, then he'd hold the bird out so Torque could get a look and a sniff. Torque would lick the bird, and the bird would give the dog a gentle peck on the nose. Eventually, “they were bounding through the house together, really enjoying each other.” In a comical game, Shrek stood still until Torque wandered by and then pounced on him. The two cuddled on the couch, seeming entranced by
East Enders
and
Coronation Street
, among other favorite shows. They'd hang around outside like loving siblings, with Torque standing guard over the feathered youngster or following her as she toddled across the grass.

As Shrek's legs got stronger from roaming with Torque, she soon realized she had another set of limbs to stretch. And once she found her wings, Shrek began to explore a world where Torque couldn't follow. The owl was placed in an aviary at the raptor center with other birds, and Torque continued his life on the ground, a little lonelier than before. But whenever Torque trotted past the birds' house, “there would be a very nice hoot from inside, Shrek to Torque,” says John. It seemed dog and bird remained friends—even from afar.

{W
ASHINGTON,
U.S.A., 2005}