Tortoise Can't Get Enough Of Chasing His Pit Bull Sister
A tortoise and a rescue dog in Texas are just a couple of pals who like to chase each other around.
Dolly, an American pit bull terrier, and Sheldon, a Sulcata tortoise, live with veterinarian Cynthia Jones. Dr. Jones adopted the two from the Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth, where she works, and the four-legged chums hit it off.
Although we don't know for sure what's going on in Sheldon's reptilian brain, the doggedness with which he follows Dolly is familiar to anyone who has toddled after a speedier sibling:
Sheldon chases after Dolly, who "runs away and they do this for hours on end," the Humane Society's Whitney Hanson told ABC News. "Apparently she's been trying to get Sheldon to get interested in her favorite red ball, but so far he has very little interest in it so he won't play fetch with her."
It's not the first time a dog has embraced a non-canine critter with open paws, or even the first reptile-pooch pairing caught on camera:
Many animal behavior experts remain skeptical that pairings like this would occur in the wilderness. Domesticated dogs are sort of a special case, as a January New York Times article notes. Bred to be receptive to another species's affections (ours), it doesn't seem so farfetched that dogs could apply their interspecies communication skills to non-humans, too.