Middle-aged female interacts with young puppies in an indoor setting, surrounded by stuffed animals and a glass barrier. 5:00
San Diego Zoo Safari Park channel icon San Diego Zoo Safari ParkOriginal creator 24M views Save

The cheetah who grew up with a boxer puppy

Ruuxa was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and his mother wouldn't raise him. With cheetahs, that can happen when there's only one cub. more

The staff took the little cheetah in right away and cared for him. On the other side of a glass wall was a boxer puppy named Raina, and Ruuxa grew attached to her fast.

As they grew, the cub and the puppy became inseparable. They played and ran around together. The keepers hoped the two would grow up more like brother and sister than friends, and it worked just the way they dreamed.

Then Ruuxa ran into trouble. When he was a few months old, his front legs started to bow. X-rays showed a condition he was born with that made them grow the wrong way, so the vets did surgery to help straighten them. No one had ever seen a cheetah with this before, and no one knew how it would turn out.

Raina stayed right by his side. The keepers thought they might have to keep the pair apart for a few weeks while his legs healed. They lasted 15 minutes. Raina was careful around his bandaged legs and never played with them, even though they looked like puppy toys, and Ruuxa healed fast.

Middle-aged female interacts with young puppies in an indoor setting, surrounded by stuffed animals and a glass barrier. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Ruuxa was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and his mother wouldn't raise him.

Now he's a healthy, very active cheetah with no limits. On the day of a cheetah run, he leaps out of a metal pen and races down the track in a straight line after one of his favorite prey items. He's only a year and a half old, so he's not even at full speed or full size yet.

A cheetah leaps forward out of a metal enclosure with a white tarp on top. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
After surgery on his front legs, Ruuxa runs like any other cheetah.

Ruuxa's name is a Somali word that means spirit, and he has lived up to it. He loves going for walks and meeting people, and he has traveled to help teach people about protecting wild animals.

It all started with a cheetah cub and a boxer puppy looking at each other through the glass.

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