Unexpected animal friends in Hampton Roads

CORRECTION: Because of an editing error, this story incorrectly characterized interactions between Nikki the parrot and Mavish the cat. The parrot does talk and actually says, "Give me a kiss!" when playing with the cat. This page has been updated to reflect this correction.

They're not the typical romantic couples that come to mind when you think of Valentine's Day, but it's hard not to have a soft spot when you see the photos of Nikki the parrot and Mavish the cat kissing or Jonesy the dog and Bugsy the bunny snuggling. Yup, they touch our hearts. We asked readers for unusual stories of animal love, and they responded. Here are our favorites:

- The Daily Break staff

Mavish & Nikki

When the bird moved in, Mavish the cat was 7 months old.

The African Grey Parrot, named Nikki, didn't seem to be worried about the Flame Point Siamese cat - seemingly, her natural enemy.

"Big birds intimidate other animals," said the animals' owner, Megan Magnolia, a hypnotherapist.

Not Mavish. Soon after the parrot's arrival, a curious cat saw the bird's cage door open, strolled in and nosed around.

"He instigated the friendship; I couldn't believe it."

Nine years later, Mavish still visits Nikki, several times a day.

The parrot has children's musical toys in her cage and can punch out a song with her beak.

Mavish reacts by touching Nikki's beak with his nose, and the bird responds, "Give me a kiss!"

Jonesy & Buddy

Cat Whitley has always been attracted to strays.

"I get the ones who need somebody," the Virginia Beach resident said recently.

Two years ago, she rescued a 5-week-old dog, a mix of a pug, Shih Tzu and Italian greyhound, and nursed him to health. She named him "Jonesy," borrowing her veterinarian's last name.

About a year later, Whitley noticed a rabbit at a pet store that was huddled away from the others. When she asked why, she was told that the bunny was blind in one eye. He, too, was 5 weeks old.

Whitley took him home.

As soon as she walked through the door, Jonesy went crazy. Whitley thought it was odd. Jonesy already had plenty of company; Whitley had three other dogs, three cats and a couple of birds.

But Jonesy moved closer to the mini red rabbit, tail wagging.

"He was totally taken with him, like he knew this was a baby," Whitley said.

Or like he'd picked up Whitley's love of strays.

One day, Whitley looked at Jonesy playing with the rabbit and said, "OK, there's your little buddy."

The rabbit now had a name.

Jonesy and Buddy now chill on the couch together and watch Westerns, with Buddy often eating one of Jonesy's dog treats and Jonesy swiping the marshmallows Whitley feeds to Buddy.

"It's the weirdest thing you've ever seen," Whitley said.

Buddy & Murphy

The luckiest day for Buddy the (probable) schnauzer-terrier mix was when he was taken into the household of financial analyst Michael Vario.

The pup had been at an animal shelter, but he suffered from macular degeneration and hobbled with a hurt hip. Not a great bet for adoption, but medical care and affection allowed him to blossom. Then Buddy got a buddy: a frisky gray tabby, Murphy, came into the Virginia Beach home about a year ago.

The dog and the cat are inseparable. They wrestle and nip at each other playfully, and they cuddle together to take naps. Both sleep on the bed with Vario.

They even dine in tandem.

"If I put Buddy's food down," Vario said, "he'll wait for Murphy to go over to his food bowl."

Jake & Ahab

One spring day at the Eastern Shore home of Bagley Walker Jr., a persistent goose flew in and became obsessed with Jake, Bagley's Labrador retriever.

It was mating season for geese, and the one-footed bird had a thing for Jake.

"He may have thought the dog was his mate," Walker says.

The goose wouldn't leave.

The retired orthodontist named the goose "Ahab," after the tyrannical captain in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick," in part because of the bird's attitude and his stomp.

Walker says mild-mannered Jake seemed indifferent to Ahab, but it didn't matter. The goose trailed the dog around the yard and guarded the canine's cage. Whenever Walker went out to release Jake, Ahab would put up a fight.

"I had to carry a towel like a matador," Walker said. "Ahab would peck at the towel while I let Jake out the cage."

Eventually, the goose seemed to grow tired of Jake's nonchalance. After three months, Ahab flew away from the Pungoteague home, just as geese mating season had ended.

But it was an unusual love story while it lasted.

Jezebelle & Richard Burton

In Rachel Micheletti's words, her Boston terrier, Jezebelle, had always been an "only child."

That changed last April, when Rachel's husband, Paul, found a litter of five newborn kittens under a bush in their yard. It was pouring, and the ground was starting to flood, so he took the little ones inside. He left the door open so the mother could retrieve her young, and she came back for three of them.

Rachel and Paul used a bottle to feed the other two, and the kittens kept growing and growing. They were dubbed "Richard Burton," shown, and "Elizabeth Taylor" and became part of the family.

Jezebelle took on the role of big sister, keeping the kittens warm and safe. The animals' favorite activity is nap time, though they love to play chase-and-fetch with each other.

"I am so lucky that they love each other," Rachel says.

Guinevere & Sasha

To save her life, Guinevere, a Bernese mountain dog, had to have one of her back legs removed.

After the surgery, owner Vicki Satterwhite brought the dog back to her condo. On any given day there, the Virginia Beach elementary schoolteacher maintains a menagerie of creatures, including a squirrel and a recuperating seagull.

Sasha, Satterwhite's cat, took a special interest in Guinevere while the dog was recuperating. The reticent cat leapt from her usual spot on the sofa and crept next to Guinevere. After several sniffs and a gentle lick on the dog's nose, Sasha curled next to her newfound friend.

The cat and dog became inseparable and still are. Sometimes when Satterwhite returns home from work, she finds the two sleeping nose to nose.

Pumba & Ryder

Pumba the guinea pig came to live in a house with four cats. And nothing happened - nothing bad, that is.

Most of the cats seemed only vaguely interested, and when Virginia Beach resident Tammy Kapturowski and her roommate got brave enough to put Pumba on the floor, cream-colored tabby Ryder got nose-to-nose.

"The guinea pig looked like he was trying to kiss Ryder, and vice versa," Kapturowski said.

But no one was brave enough to leave Pumba and the cats unsupervised, so a week went by in which Ryder didn't see his new buddy. Then one day Pumba was on the floor again.

"Ryder was coming slowly down the hall and noticed the guinea pig," Kapturowski said. "He ran over, collapsed on his side and threw his paw around the guinea pig and started bathing it like it was a kitten."

When Pumba isn't available, Ryder likes to snuggle with orange tabby Riley.

"We're pretty lucky that all four of the cats and the guinea pig, they all get along," she said.

Missy & Mister Bibs

Maybe Missy the beagle didn't have a happy puppyhood - she was found tied to an empty house and didn't even know how to play with toys.

And maybe Mister Bibs the tabby didn't have the best start, either - his mother was a stray.

But they lucked out meeting Tammy Fortune of Virginia Beach and her family, who took them in.

Now Missy and Mister Bibs are best friends who do everything together, including taunting the other two cats in the household.

- Teresa Annas, Jim Haag, Rashod Ollison, Diane Tennant and Denise Watson Batts, The Virginian-Pilot