Welcome to your new favorite Disney movie: A newborn cheetah is rejected by his mother (all Disney movies start sad, Walt Disney is a MONSTER), but eventually finds a lifelong friend in a puppy. Adventures ensue.
In real life, the cheetah is 6-week-old Ruuxa, who was rejected by his mother at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Ruuxa has no siblings, so zookeepers introduced him to 7-week-old Rhodesian ridgeback puppy, Raina.
The L.A. Times explains, "Cheetah mothers usually give birth to three to five cubs. When they have a singleton, they often abandon it, possibly out of a belief that it cannot survive the wild."
Now, Ruuxa will have a lifelong companion in Raina.
Zoo officials say the twosome love playing, snuggling and taking naps together.
"As the two companions grow up together, the dog's body language will communicate to the cheetah that there's nothing to fear in new or public surroundings, which relaxes and calms the cheetah," Safari Park explains.
If they seem like an odd pairing, it's worked before: Just look at Kasi and Mtani at Busch Gardens in Florida (aka the grown-up sequel to your favorite Disney movie ever).