An abandoned donkey and emu with a strong attachment have created a problem for an animal shelter in North Carolina.
The two animals are reportedly in love and cannot bear to be separated, The Charlotte Observer reports.
"They like to cuddle and even sleep together. We can't separate them, so we need someone who is willing to adopt both a donkey and an emu. That may not be easy," Jennifer Gordon of Carolina Waterfowl Rescue told The Charlotte Observer.
The unlikely pair, who have been named Jack and Diane, were rescued along with several chickens, dogs, and cats when their owner vanished last week.
Carolina Waterfowl Rescue took the animals in, but after trying to separate the donkey and the emu discovered doing so would be problematic.
Jack, the donkey, "started crying," Gordon said, while Diane, the emu, "got frantic."
While the rescue currently has three donkeys, the new arrival had no interest in residing with them.
"When we put him in with the other donkeys, he attacked them," Gordon said.
Gordon said she guessed that loneliness is the reason for the strong bond between the pair, who are now being kept in the same enclosure as they await adoption.
Though Gordon told The Observer that she worried the shelter would have to keep the animals indefinitely due to the challenges of finding them a home together, the shelter has been flooded with adoption inquiries.
"Our phone system is crashing, our email system is crashing. We simply cannot keep up with the volume of people sending us Facebook messages, texts, emails, and phone calls," the shelter posted on their Facebook page, stating that over 2000 adoption applications had been submitted for Jack and Diane.
Given the volume of inquiries, the shelter said they would be closing applications for adoption and only reopen the process if a suitable home could not be found for the pair from the available candidates. Carolina Waterfowl Rescue expects the review process for the applications to take about a month.
"We will keep you updated on what's going on with Jack and Diane as we progress and hopefully we'll follow them to their new home where everyone can see them happy and healthy," the shelter said.
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