Best Buddies: Tarra and Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends by Carol Buckley

Meet Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog who won her heart.

Whatever attracted the elephant and dog to each other remains a mystery, but one thing is sure--Tarra and Bella are truly forever friends.

An ex-rollerskating circus elephant and a shaggy mutt seem like an odd couple, but it was a case of love at first sight for these two.

Bella had been retired from show business to become the first resident of Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, a private park which provides meadows and woodlands for elephants emeritus. As other elephants were added to the herd, Bella seemed to take on the welcome wagon role, showing the newbies around barns, pastures, watering holes, and trails, but as the others paired off with each other for company, Tarra remained without a preferred companion.

That is, until one morning when Tarra awoke to find that she had a bed buddy--a shaggy gold and white dog sleeping right next to her. Unexpectedly, she touched the dog gently with her trunk and chirped a welcome, and an unlikely friendship was born. From that day the elephant and the dog, whom the staff named Bella, did everything together: they ate and walked and swam and even played hide and seek in the grass together.

Tarra even came to her friend's rescue one morning when she found Bella lying hurt in a shallow ditch surrounded by tall grass. The big elephant stood watch until the sanctuary staff noticed her anxiety and came to take Bella for medical assistance. Bella's big buddy remained by that spot all day, but when the caretakers did not bring her friend back, Tarra intuitively headed for the barn where Bella was resting after treatment. She returned there to visit her partner daily until at last the dog was well enough to be allowed out and around to resume their daily routines again.

Carol Buckley's Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009) is filled with appealing color photos of this unlikely pair of forever friends. Other books which feature unusual bondings between intelligent animals include Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, the story of the unlikely bond between an orphaned baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise and its sequels, (see my earlier posted review here) and Koko's Kitten (Reading Rainbow Book), the equally amazing story of the sign-language-trained gorilla and the homeless striped kitten who became her best friend.

Pal in the Wild: Sniffer and Tinni: A True Tale of Amazing Animal Friends by Bend Helberg

MEET SNIFFER, A FEARLESS RED FOX, AND TINNI, A PATIENT AND KIND GERMAN SHEPHERD, THAT LIVE IN THE SMALL NORWEGIAN TOWN OF SKI.

DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES, THEY HAVE BECOME BEST FRIENDS.

Walking in the forest near town with his owner one warm summer morning, Tinni, a dignified grown-up dog, found himself being suddenly tackled by an enthusiastic bundle of red fur--a baby fox who seemed to have lost his mother and litter mates and who really seemed to need Tinni for a playmate.

TINNI DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF HIM!

The bemused dog allowed the little fox to climb all over him, sniffing and licking his nose, until he couldn't resist the invitation! The two started to play--chasing and tumbling like puppies through the grass. Tinni's owner named the little guy "Sniffer."

And surprisingly, during the next morning's walk, the little fox appeared again. The two were off on a chase through the woods. The agile little Sniffer was hard for the big dog to catch, running up fallen tree trunks and hiding in the branches, or dashing behind trees, jumping out to ambush his big friend. After a few days of morning meetings, Tinni's owner brought along food treats for Sniffer and toys for the two to play with. Sniffer was frustrated when he couldn't mouth a big ball in his little narrow jaws like Tinni could, but Sniffer could reach way down into a hollow stump until only his tail was visible, and was quicker at chasing squirrels through the underbrush. And when the winter came, the two rolled in the snow and curiously inspected their own upside-down reflections in the ice on the pond.

Berit Halberg's Sniffer & Tinni: A True Tale of Amazing Animal Friendship Sterling Books, 2016), illustrated gloriously with Torgeir Berge's up-close-and-personal color photos of the two unlikely buddies. Sniffer is an irresistible little orphan who will charm young readers as easily as he charmed the big German shepherd, and Halberg's simple narrative tells the sweet story of this unexpected friendship between two animals whose usual roles are to be lifelong foes.

Halberg's account joins the many fine accounts of unusual animal pairings that readers may also love to share, such as the photo-essay stories of the giant tortoise and young hippo, Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (See my reviews here) or the story of dog and elephant best friends, Carol Buckley's Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends. (See my review here.)