This Dog’s Best Friend Is A Tiny Rescued Owl—And Suddenly All Is Right With The World

Meet Ingo, a beautiful Belgian shepherd dog and his best friend, Poldi (short for Napoleon), a 1-year-old owlet.

They’ve formed an endearing inter-species friendship that has been chronicled by their human, photographer Tanja Brandt. They all live together in Germany.

Brandt has several other dogs, and also shares her home with rehabilitated birds of many types, including owls. Poldi was the runt of the litter and Ingo sensed that the tiny bird needed a big brother to protect him. Ingo, who descends from a long line of police dogs (imagine that), has always been there to protect the little wayward owl from harm!

Now Poldi has a special someone and babies of his own to care for, so he has other priorities…but the two are still BFFs. “They respect each other and they can read each other,” Brandt said of the unlikely duo in a story on WhiteWolfpack.com.

It seems like we could all stand to learn a valuable lesson from Ingo and Poldi: Instead of being afraid of people who are different from us, maybe we should try forming a friendship instead. Hey, if an owl and a dog can do it, we can, too!

[h/t: WhiteWolfpack.com]