Maggie's Farm

Great post, BD, and a perfect example of how a feral animal can be domesticated if started early enough. I've raised lots of feral critters and the difference is very demonstrable: buy a pet rat or bunny rabbit from the pet store at 6 weeks old and it'll never become human-friendly. Start handling them from the time they can crawl and they can become almost as friendly as a cat or dog.

In this case, Jessie was rescued when she was one day old, and when the lady says she "thinks she's human", that's probably pretty close to the truth. The way she carefully lumbers up the steps inside the kitchen is just too precious.

And if intelligence is the issue, here's what I saw:

- One pet lazes in the river all day, hangs out with her hippo buddies for a while, eats, eats and eats, then gets a full-body massage and a nice sleep beneath a comfy blanket.

- The other pet watches a 2,000-lb beast walk toward it, doesn't budge and gets its paw stepped on as a reward.

I think we have a winner!