Pet Hippo

I think it's fairly common knowledge that hippos are dangerous AF.

So here is Jessica, a family hippo. I think she's pretty freaking cute.



She opens the door to the house and lumbers in. She hangs out with the dogs (felt so bad for the dog when she stepped on his foot).

She's just a big baby.

I'm always taken with stories like this. Dogs have been domesticated forever. We love them, they love us, in the grand scheme of things it's a little weird, I don't think any other animal keeps other animals as pets.

So dogs and cats are very different from a huge animal that is the most dangerous in Africa. it amazes me that some people just "click" with certain animals, even if they raise them from a young age. I like how the guy in the story says he has a more profound bond with her, and casually mentions raising elephants and lions.

What do you think makes certain animals so different? The closest I've come to this sort of thing is with horses. Horses I get, wild animals that should be considered super dangerous and become a sort of pet I don't. Like the guy with a pet polar bear.

Nope. Hippos are river horses. They live peacefully in necks of the river that I will avoid. A hippo will wring a human out like a wet rag.

a reply to: skunkape23

One of my favorite memories is swimming in a river with my first horse for the first time! She loved water, if I let her have her head near water she would go up to it and stomp it (splash!) and if it was deep enough she loved getting in and swimming.

She was a hippo. Big sweet mare, I used to always call her over to the fence and hop on and relax while she grazed. In the summer she loved to go for a quick swim in the "pond" with me on her back. I think I was about 8, and she was my babysitter. Always cracks me up, my parents were so safety conscious unless I was around horses. Riding my bike was super dangerous and I had to wear a helmet, hopping on a horse with no saddle or means of control was fine. To be fair, she was a lot smarter than me on a bike, that girl protected me.

That poor dog I think it's nuts to have those dogs around that hippo if they cared about them they wouldn't!!!!! All that hippo has to do is sit on one of them by accident and kill it sorry just ticks me off!

I was almost killed by a hippo once, with my baby daughter in my arms, when it escaped handlers at a small circus. The circus people all ran for the sides of the tent and started climbing up as fast as they could, as the thing charged the seats of the public. I was barely able to get out of mine with my baby as it barreled through my chair. It's skin actually came into contact with mine.

Then it turned around and started actually shooting out feces into the screaming crowds.

This one looks cute and all- but I have the same thought as I always do when you see people keeping wild animals in this way, so that they are the masters and the humans serve them- we will hear about these people in the news one day, when they''ve been killed or mangled.

They finally caved in to the demands huh? Wow I have been gone a long time. Never thought I'd see this forum.

I just had to check my lease before adopting a christmas kitten--no pets

Like cats and dogs, horses have also been domesticated for centuries and centuries, so not really a fair comparison.

While there are certainly stories like this one, they are the exception not the rule. Sigfried and Roy worked with wild cats for years and yet still, one got mauled one day. Just takes ONE bad day or call to get messed up.

I always wanted a couch hippo... Apparently they live in Canada, yet I've been unable to capture one

Perhaps one day

Awwww cute! Until it starts deficating in your living room using a it's tail to spray fecies from the window to the wall! Seriously though one poop and your yard shot.


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a reply to: Domo1

a reply to: Domo1

She's not really domesticated. She's a hippo that they helped nurse and care for as a baby. Jessica chooses to come back and help herself to human company, human treats and shelter. She also spends an equal or longer amount of time in the wild with other hippos.

Dangerous? Very, depending on the context. She seems gentle when inside or around her humans though.