Though cats are often predators of squirrels, we’ve occasionally seen them form friendships when living together as pets in the same household. Even so, Rocky’s story is really something else. When Rocky the squirrel fell out of a tree as a baby, a woman placed him in a box of her cat Emmy’s kittens. Now there’s a risky move! But miraculously, Emmy let the baby squirrel drink her milk and treated him as one of her own.

Since Rocky was adopted as a cat at such a young age, he will always identify as a feline and can never be released into the wild — he would be an easy target for predators, with little chance of survival. In fact, Rocky feels so much like a cat that he purrs when humans pick him up and pet him. It doesn’t sound exactly like a cat’s purr — it’s more like a little chatter. But Rocky does his best with his squirrel’s anatomy, and doesn’t seem to know the difference.


Image source: Steven Jay Photography/Flickr