Internet in Hysterics As Puppy Becomes BFFs With Unexpected Animal

A video of a puppy meeting his owner’s pet rat for the first time has racked up over 40 million views on Instagram.

The heartwarming clip shared to @twogreek_dogs shows Kronos, the pit bull puppy, curiously walking around the house before he lies on a red blanket on the couch. He is soon joined by a black rat called Remi, who is almost the same length as the canine.

The pair instantly hit it off as Remi tiptoes over Kronos’s body and finds comfort underneath his chin. The clip captioned “cuddle buddies” shows Kronos grooming his rodent companion.

Blue Cross, a British animal charity, says that puppies often lick or groom their littermates to strengthen their bond, as seen with Kronos and Remi. Despite being different species, both share the fact that neither is America’s favorite pet, with pit bulls not making the American Kennel Club’s most popular breeds list for 2023. While pit bulls are often labeled as dangerous, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (ASPCA) argues they should be judged individually.

Additionally, rats are less popular as pets partly due to concerns about germs and diseases such as salmonella and rat bite fever as noted by health authorities like the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Diseases can be spread through the urine, feces, and saliva of recently infected rats, so owners are advised to keep their rats environment as clean as possible. These concerns contribute to their lower popularity, despite being intelligent and social animals.

So far, the June 14 clip has received more than 4.2 million likes and over 12,000 comments. However, some users are concerned about Remi’s safety.

One user joked: “Please don’t do this! It’s too dangerous. You’re rat may teach your puppy to cook and they will become a famous chef duo and you’ll have to do sooooo many dishes.”

On a more serious note, another posted: “Be VERY careful with interspecies interactions. I know it’s super tempting and cute, and we let our super tiny puppy meet some rats initially, but [this] did not last. You never know what an animal can do if it gets the urge or gets spooked. Rats are a prey animal and dogs and cats and many other animals are predators and have natural drives to play with and kill small critters. It’s just not worth it.”

However, this doesn’t seem to be the case as the owner has shared more videos showcasing their friendship. On July 28, a video captioned “a love story in real time,” shows the pair laying on the dog’s bed while kissing, cuddling and playing together.

Newsweek reached out to @twogreek_dogs for comment via email. We could not verify the details of the case.

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