Owen & Mzee

Christopher asked us to read him a pile of books tonight, but one he keeps pulling out is the story about the orphaned hippo, Owen, and the grumpy 138-yr old tortoise, Mzee. It's a true story, about how they became best friends, and where they live in Kenya, Africa. Because Owen was only a year old when the two met, he was still learning how to be a hippo. Mzee taught him how to eat, and how to behave, not a likely outcome between a reptile and a mammal.


(These two pictures were borrowed from their official website)

Here are pictures and a brief story about their friendship

and here

Owen was eventually introduced to another orphaned girl hippo, Cleo, and they are partners now. Because Cleo was rough around the tortoises, Mzee had to be relocated to another area of the park, which meant the breakup of Owen and Mzee.

I tell you, we really, really should learn from animals. They do what works, they make things work. They live honestly.

But, off the soap box, this is a really FANTASTIC story about unlikely friends!