Cheetahs are social animals at heart, so when a momma cheetah didn’t have enough milk for all of her cubs, one hand-reared baby desperately needed a companion.

While his human handlers did all they could for little Kumbali, including bottle feeding him every two hours and letting him sleep in a warm incubator…there are some things that only a fellow four-legged fluff ball can provide.

This would never happen in the wild, but it’s great that Kumbali and Kago found happiness in each other after bumpy starts to both of their lives. Watching them play together as if they really are brothers truly does warm your heart to the core.