It’s a well-known fact that friendships are beneficial for a person's well-being. They raise one’s sense of connection and purpose, boost their happiness and self-confidence, and lower stress levels, to name a few of the benefits.
Essentially, people form friendships, or in other words, social relationships, to navigate their environment, basing it on various levels of trust and intimacy. Trust typically grows between individuals when repeated interactions are positive.
But is friendship, such an important and useful phenomenon, limited to human beings? Can other species develop similar feelings? Well, it turns out that they can.
Proof of such bonds between animals can take many forms, from killer whales sharing food and information about where to find it so group members don’t starve, to cats cuddling or dogs playing with each other.
For more wholesome examples, take a look at today’s list – just be aware that it’s full of cats. After all, it’s said that cats are the unofficial mascot of the internet, so we thought that you wouldn’t mind partaking in some cat content, right?
#9 I'd Say The Senior Cat Adopted The Kitten, But It's The Other Way Around
All of these examples were shared on r/Bondedpairs, so if the examples we shared with you aren’t enough, you can take a peek there; it’s a community with loads of heartwarming content.
Also, did you know that animals can form friendships even with species that aren’t theirs? This phenomenon is called “interspecies friendship.” Reasons behind such interesting bonds include domestication, interspecies communication, mutually beneficial exchanges, or simply a desire for social bonding or protection.
#10 I Brought Home An Orphaned Bottle Baby, And My Cat Adopted Her As Her Very Own. Now She’s Grown And They Still Love Each Other
Interestingly, any documentation of interspecies friendship gathers quite a lot of attention, especially if shared publicly, as most commonly it’s a bond between species you don’t expect to see so close with each other.
Here, The Dodo even has a whole category of articles about it, which suggests that people really enjoy this kind of content. Maybe we should write something about it? Well, that’s an idea for another day.
Interspecies friendships are so interesting for us humans that there’s even a whole movie and TV trope about them. Granted, most commonly it appears in animation, fairytales, comics, and advertisements instead of real-life movies, but the fact that it’s popular enough to be assigned a trope name stands.
#13 Ham & Cheese Love To Watch Movies. Litter Mates, Found Abandoned At A Lake Nearly 5 Years Ago
Examples of such friendships in entertainment include the whole friend gang from Winnie the Pooh, which includes animals from the bear to the owl and tiger – a whole plethora of species. Another example could be found in the Peanuts comic, where Snoopy the Beagle is friends with a little yellow bird named Woodstock.
We’re sure you can think of even more examples, since, as we said, the trope is a pretty common one. If you do, don’t shy away from sharing it in the comments, and let’s all celebrate the wholesomeness that is friendship between animals, whether it’s from a fictional or a real source.
#19 My Bonded Pair Of Foster Boys At An Adoption Event! Somehow Quint And Hooper Are Still Looking For Their Forever Home :-(
