Life

Lessons In Friendship From Baby Foxes

We all know the story: boy and girl meet, boy and girl clash, boy and girl take the long road to friendship and ultimately become BFFs. But replace the human boy and girl with two baby foxes called Lonely Boy and Feisty Girl, and the story becomes almost too cute to handle. Almost.

Orphans Lonely Boy and Feisty Girl (I literally squeal every time I have to type those names) were rescued by the British animal welfare group Wildlife Aid, whose ultimate goal is to return every animal they care for back to the wild. Single baby foxes are particularly prone to imprinting on humans, so finding them at least one fox pal to recuperate with is imperative. Otherwise, they'd have to be, I don't know, a pet... like... my pet... or whatever...

But anyway. I digress.

As one might expect from their names, Lonely Boy and Feisty Girl didn't immediately click — by which I mean that Feisty Girl instantly started biting Lonely Boy and Lonely Boy started doing this sad little fox cry. Wildlife Aid recorded their work with the two foxes, and the video featuring this particular instance was so sad I almost had to turn it off:

In treating the two orphans like six-year-old humans, though, the workers at Wildlife Aid found a solution: Physically separate them until the curiosity becomes too much, at which point they'll start thinking that becoming friends was their own idea all along. Now they're besties and I'm crying again — but this time, it's tears of joy. Awwwwwwww!

In case you haven't overdosed on cute feelings yet, here are a few more squeal-worthy pet friends:

1. Dog and Pig

2. Rat and Dog

3. Calf and Dog

4. Dogs of all ages and sizes

Plus a pig named Bikini, who is not pictured here — but I promise if you snoop around this Instagram account, you will see her, too.

I know, right?

Images: SiLVer-13/Flickr; Giphy; @jamievulva, osirisandriff, speegyspeegs, wolfgang2242/Instagram