There are few things in this world as rare and precious as an interspecies friendship. Among many documented stories of animals raised by humans is the heartwarming journey of Pepe, a rescue crow that fell from a 100-foot tree, was taken in by Jo, his human mum, and grew up with her pet German Shepherd.
The corvid was introduced to the world by The Dodo, a New York City-based content publisher that focuses on animals, especially those adopted or helped by, or friendly with humans.
Pepe first caught the internet’s attention after it was revealed he loves going on walks with Xena, his dog sibling. He was always curious about her sniffing something and would run up and see what intrigued her so much.
Then he’d just stand there confused because birds obviously don't have the same sense of smell as dogs.
According to Jo, there was a major sibling rivalry between the crow and the German Shepherd. Just about anything that Xena had, Pepe wanted. So if she’s playing with a toy, he’d run to her and grab the other end of the toy, and start playing tug of war.
Aside from his playful nature, the crow also sometimes unwittingly caused people to get concerned about him when he bent his neck back while sunbathing.
They do that because the heat helps kill parasites. It's just an overall self-care thing that crows do. Because he trusted Jo, he would do that anywhere in her yard.
When Mom first found Pepe, he had fallen down a great height off a tree. She initially tried recording his noises and playing them on speakers to see if maybe his biological mother would come and check on the baby, but she didn’t.
Aside from bringing him inside at night to keep him safe from stray cats, Jo said she didn't interact with him a lot. Of course, she fed him more than once.
One day, she saw that he was taking his first steps and took him to the ground in her backyard, which turned out to be a great environment for him to explore more.
Instead of giving him food directly, it was, “Okay here is a mealworm” and he would start pecking at it. Jo taught him to fly when he started developing flight feathers.
“It was a pretty cool experience to see him get the hang of things so quickly,” she recalled.
“His favourite spot to hide berries are my crocs. If there's a wrinkle on my shirt he will try to hide it in the wrinkle. It always makes me laugh because he's so smart, it amazes me that he has not learned reliable hiding spots as he's gotten older.”
When she did give him food, instead of just eating all of it, he started taking it to make crow friends. So, Jo started giving him good food so he could take it to his friends.
Soon, they started seeing Pepe hanging out with one friend, then two friends, and now he's joined the family.
He used to visit Jo and Xena daily. Then it became once a week.
“It's bittersweet seeing him become more independent but as much as i enjoy his company, my goal from the beginning was to make sure that he could live as normal of a crow life as possible,” Jo said.
A few months later, Pepe stopped visiting.
"While Pepe has not returned, I have plenty of wonderful memories that I will continue to share (hopefully more frequently) for those still interested in seeing Pepe’s journey," Jo said in an Instagram post.