Lifestyle

Animal magnetism: Caring for others transcends species

Dogs and cats living together . . . mass cute-steria!

These odd couples prove that cats and canines aren’t just man’s best friends — they’re foster parents to critters of all stripes.

In “One Big Happy Family” by Lisa Rogak (St. Martin’s Griffin), household pets curb their predator instincts to adopt orphaned animals. But chimpanzees and other wild creatures can raise puppies as their own too.

Here are some of many interspecies cuddle-fests:

Lisha

Lisha with a baby pgymy hippo

She’s the mother of all animals. Lisha, a Labrador retriever in South Africa, never had a litter of her own. But the loving lab has raised more than 30 baby creatures — including tiger cubs, porcupines and this pygmy hippo. Nadine and Rob Hall run a wildlife ranch, where the canine nurtures animal orphans. “We noticed early on that she didn’t care if it was a cat or a porcupine,” Nadine Hall said. “She licks them and cares for them, almost like a mother would.”

Sam

Sam with his marmoset friend

This Chihuahua really does have a monkey on her back. Sam the dog takes this marmoset for a ride every day to protect him. The pint-sized primate was born at a Norfolk, England zoo that runs a breeding program for endangered animals. When some in the marmoset group started fighting each other — which is typical for animals born in captivity — Sam was called in to give the monkey some cuddle time.

Anna

Anna

Call it puppy love! Not all chimps can be trusted with small animals, but Anna is a canine baby-sitter at a wildlife park in Daventry, England, where domestic and wild animals coexist. This maternal chimpanzee is fascinated whenever dogs have puppies and gentle cradles the pooches as if they were her own. When strangers get to close, Anna becomes protective of them.

Kiera and Cherub

Kiera and Cherub

Here’s a different kind of bird dog. When this German shorthaired pointer saw a tiny owl, she didn’t attack — but adopted him as her own. Karen Andriunas, who runs a bird refuge in England, obtained the white-faced scops owl, named Cherub, for educational programs at local schools. To train the owlet, she let him fly around her home, where Kiera the dog instantly fell in love. Andriunas said the hound can’t relax until the owlet is back home.

Koa

Koa with her baby bunny

When three sisters in San Francisco saved up for a dog, they didn’t know they’d get rabbits too. The siblings adopted Koa, a golden retriever, in 2011 and let her chase lizards in their backyard. But when Koa dug up a nest of wild bunnies, the girls rushed the kits to a vet. The family was ready to care for the babies, but Koa stepped in. “Koa has never been a mother, so she thinks these are her little puppies,” said mom Tina Case.

Billy and Lilly

Lilly and Billy

He really thinks it’s his kid. Billy, a boxer on a farm in Devon, England, became a doggy dad after a goat had three kids and abandoned the runt of the litter. Owner Elizabeth Tozer was bottle-feeding the baby, named Lilly, when Billy’s paternal instincts butted in. Now they’re inseparable. “Lilly follows Billy around, which is really quite amusing to watch, and Billy sleeps with the goat and cleans her mouth after she feeds,” Tozer said.

Chestnut

Chestnut the squirrel

This baby squirrel thinks he’s a cat. Rebecca Hill was walking her children to school in West Sussex, England, when they found an orphaned kit. They took in the malnourished critter —named Chestnut — and decided to slip him in with the family’s litter of nursing kittens. Within days, the cats adopted the furry rodent as their own. “I’m sure Chestnut thinks he is a cat and the cats think so too,” said Martin, Rebecca’s husband. “He plays rough and tumble with the other kittens.”