When Ruuxa woke up, Raina was right there to great him.
These two unlikely friends are inseparable – even during surgery. Ruuxa the cheetah needed surgery on his front legs because they were growing abnormally which would cause pain later in life. His best friend, Raina the Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, waited by his side in the surgery room at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park until everything was completed.
When Ruuxa woke up, Raina was right there to greet him.
“Raina appeared very concerned about Ruuxa when she saw he was sleeping and she couldn’t wake him,” said Susie Ekard, animal training manager, Safari Park. “She licked him and nuzzled him, and when he awoke, she lay with him and seemed very content to know her cheetah was okay.”
