Lonely old tortoise befriends scared puppies in their new foster home

We always love stories of unlikely animal friendships. Sometimes when you have different species under one roof you wonder if they’ll be able to get along, only for the animals to get along great.

Like one heartwarming story of a group of orphaned puppies who found a friend and guardian in the most unexpected creature.

Andrea is a foster and 2nd Chances Rescue, and a few years ago became the guardian of three tiny puppies who were being left in a PetSmart parking lot.

“A man came up with a beer box filled with these four puppies,” Andrea told PAWsitive. “He said he caught them in his backyard and he wasn’t able to catch the mom.”

Andrea took the puppies in and took care of them, though it took some time for them to adjust to their new home: “They were scared,” Andrea said. They were little and they were scared.”

Andrea also had another rescue pet in her care: an eighty-poud sulcata tortoise named Goliath.

The old tortoise and the young puppies seem like an odd match, but Andrea soon discovered a bond between her rescue pets.

One day, Andrea noticed one of the puppies was missing. She panicked… but soon discovered that the dog was hiding in Goliath’s hutch.

She soon realized that all the puppies loved to cuddle with their tortoise friend—and it seemed to give the scared puppies a sense of protection.

“They seemed to find a sense of security being with Goliath,” Andrea said. “I would find them snuggled around Goliath during the day.”

But not only did it help the puppies, it helped Goliath, too. Andrea says the tortoise likes attention and to be touched, however most dogs “are afraid of him and ignore him.”

Clearly, the puppies saw things differently, and the tortoise was happy to finally have company: “I think he was thrilled, I think he loved it.”