Rupert the Pet Rhino

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum released a photograph last week of a little boy feeding bananas to a baby rhino in his kitchen, pretty much making him the coolest little boy ever, or at least until someone figures out how to shrink an elephant down to the size of the palm of your hand and genetically modify him to excrete Raisinettes. The Daily Mail was so curious about this pic that they tracked down the boy and his rhino to get the full story.

Apparently, the rhino's name was Rupert and his owner was Mike Condy of Johannesberg, South Africa. His family adopted Rupert after some flooding left him an orphan. Rupert then bonded with the family dogs and, most of the time, behaved exactly like a puppy.

Rupey was our mode of transport. We used to ride around on him. He was safe enough, apart from at 5pm when it was his 'playtime'. You climbed a tree then, and the dogs scattered, and Rupey would put his nose down and charge around.

"One day, my sister was riding a bike and he went charging after her - my mum had a freak-out. But he did a beautiful side-step, came up to her and just nuzzled her. He thought he was one of the dogs.'

Mr Ford added: "Our dog used to go into my bedroom and lie on the bed. One day, Rupey did too. It was one of those metal hospital beds, but it was a bed no more after that."

Unfortunately, Rupert's base animal urges eventually got the better of him, and he was released back into the jungle, where he died 18 months later of pneumonia. But he still holds the record as the world's coolest pet.

The extraordinary story of Rupert the rhino [Daily Mail]