A retired Brazilian man has an unusual best friend and there's something very fishy about it—fishy as in sardines, his best friend's favorite snack.
In 2011, Joao Pereira de Souza found a Magellanic penguin near his home on the shore of Rio de Janeiro province in Brazil. The bird was covered in oil and starving. So Joao took him home, cleaned him and fed him some sardines. After a week, the ocean-going bird was well enough that Joao took him back to the sea and freedom.
Lo and behold, eight months later Dindim (as Joao had named him) showed up again, looking for his friend and rescuer—and then came back again the next year and the next and so on right up to the present day.
It's not just any human that Dindim wants to get cozy with; he won't let anyone besides Joao touch him. As for Joao, well, Dindim likes to get cuddled, fed sardines, receive showers, and he follows Joao around the village and the beach, wagging his tail like a dog and honking to show he's a happy little feller with his human buddy.
Of course, a penguin's gotta do what a penguin's gotta do. So for about four months of the year, Dindim travels south to cold climes to find a bit of aquatic bird love before returning to Brazil to spend the other eight months with Joao. Magellanic penguins live 25-30 years so Joao and Dindim should be able to keep each other company for a long time to come.
Sound is in Portuguese but it's still ever so cute to watch
As one of the news articles points out, normally Brazil and other nations discourage or legally prohibit keeping penguins and other exotic animals as pets. But considering that Joao saved Dindim's life and that Dindim himself has chosen to return over and over again to his friend, authorities are bending the rules in this instance.
You can read the full story at the UK's Independent and at the Argentina Star.