We always love stories of unusual friendships with animals. When you have different species of animals under one roof, you sometimes wonder if they get along just so the animals get along.

Puppies are so energetic and playful that we often forget that they’re technically babies who often need a lot of nurturing too. Now you’d expect them to turn to their mother or a kind-hearted human for some love and support. But you’d be wrong. Some puppies choose the most unusual friends to get some TLC.

Like the moving story of a group of orphaned puppies who found a friend and guardian in the most unexpected creature. A foster home and 2nd Chances Rescue, Andrea became the guardian of three puppies left in the PetSmart parking lot a few years ago.

“A man came up with a case of beer with these four puppies,” Andrea told PAWsitive. “He said he caught her in her garden and he couldn’t catch her mother.”

Andrea took in the cubs and cared for them, although it took her a while to get used to her new home: “They were scared,” Andrea said. They were small and they were afraid” Andrea also had another rescue pet in her care: an eighty-year-old sulcata tortoise named Goliath.The old tortoise and the young cubs seem like an odd couple, but Andrea soon discovered a connection between her rescue dogs

Unlike some of Andrea’s other guests, Goliath is a permanent resident in her home.
Given how slow most turtles are, you wouldn’t expect Goliath to be so sociable, but he is. In fact, he does everything in his power to get Andrea’s attention, and that includes making friends with some pawsitively awesome friends.

One day Andrea realized that one of the puppies was missing. She panicked … but she soon found out that the dog was hiding in Goliath’s stable. He soon realized that all the cubs loved to cuddle with their turtle friend, and it seemed to give the frightened pups a sense of protection.

“They seemed to find a sense of security with Goliath,” Andrea said. “I found her huddled around Goliath during the day.” He not only helped the cubs, he also helped Goliath.

Most of Andrea’s foster animals find Goliath to be a bit intimidating because of his size.. She discovered that these puppies were certainly not afraid of Goliath at all. In fact, she found one of them in the turtle’s hutch. It didn’t take Andrea long to figure out that all of the other puppies were going inside the hutch as well..

Andrea says the turtle likes attention and touch, but most dogs “are afraid of it and ignore it.” Obviously the cubs saw things differently and the tortoise was happy to finally have company: “I think he was excited, I think he loved it.”

She has fostered other dogs before and none of them have ever treated Goliath with love and respect. In fact, most dogs have either ignored him or they’ve been afraid of them. But these puppies are certainly the exception. They even snuggle with him as they love to keep Goliath company!.

It takes a lot of trust not to get annoyed by someone riding on your back, especially if you’re a turtle.

Andrea found that Goliath is extremely kind, patient, and loves to hang out with his four-legged foster brothers. But he can only transport two puppies at a time on top of his hard shell. Still, it’s so lovely to see such a harmonious exchange between these friends from another species.