In the animated movie The Secret Life of Pets, dog owners got a very funny glimpse at what the family pet does when no humans are around.
But photos from a trail camera caught the real life adventures of a family's missing dog, and they're so cute we can barely believe it.
In December, Rachel Howatt from Manitoba, Canada posted a concerned message to Facebook. Her husky, Koda, had been missing for several days.
To her relief, Koda returned home soon after. But Howatt had no idea where the little troublemaker had gone until just this month.
Photos from a trail camera show Koda during her disappearance, tagging along with a wild deer and even giving the much larger animal a playful lick on the nose.
The surprising images are courtesy of Howatt's neighbor, who checked the trail camera at his hunting cabin and found hundreds of photos of the pair together across the three days Koda was missing.
Koda and the buck appeared to follow each other around, and one photo shows the dog curled up while the deer stands guard.
Howatt says that Koda is known for wondering, and joked to the Winnipeg Free Press that now she knows why.
"It kind of makes sense now, because she does still disappear for a few hours at a time," she said. "I joke it's to check up on this new friend she's got in the valley."
Garry Suderman, the man whose camera caught the pair together, had a less Disney explanation for the unlikely animal friendship.
"My first impression was the dog was waiting for the animal, to try and take it out. For a meal. But being the deer was not that weak, the dog eventually got hungry (and went home)," he told the Free Press.
The deer looked to be injured, with wounds on its face, but there's no evidence from Suderman's camera that the animals were anything but friends - so that's what I'm choosing to believe!
[H/T: Winnipeg Free Press]
