By Cara Sulieman
A LONELY honey bear has finally found a girlfriend after a year with only a stuffed toy as company.
Kito has been living with his owner Jodie Lynn, 29, since last year and has been a bit forlorn.
The kinkajou, also known as honey bears due to their love of honey, even befriended a toy lemur in his attempts at companionship.
So Jodie got him a new friend and after a shaky start they have been inseparable.
She said: “Kito was a bit unsure of the newcomer at first as he isn’t used to being around other kinkajou and has got used to being treated like a proper little boy.
“The female was a bit shy to begin with as well, so they sat and looked at each other a lot.
“But now they’ve got used to each other they’re constantly playing together.
“Kito goes over and gives the female kinkajou hugs, wrapping his little arms around her.
“He’s cleaning and feeding her as well, always going over and hand feeding her bananas.
“He’s been incredibly gentle and loving towards her and she’s been quite shy.”
Although she answers to Grape – her favourite food – the new arrival didn’t have a proper name when she arrived in Aberdeen.
So Jodie decided to open a competition to her customers to give them the chance to name the cute creature.
She said: “When we got Kito he had already been named by his breeder so I was expecting the same for our new female.
“But when she arrived in Aberdeen she was nameless.
“I had no idea what to call her so we started a competition.
“The resulting name, Khaya, is beautiful and is African for ‘home.’
“She’s not used to it just yet, but I’m sure she’ll start answering to it soon.”
And the lovebirds have settled into their new home in the back garden – their very own special enclosure.
The animals had to spend the first few days in the house with Jodie to make sure they got on and didn’t fight with each other.
Once she was confident they were more lovers than fighters, Jodie could move the pair into the retreat and leave them to their own devices.
She said: “The two kinkajou’s are really happy in their new enclosure. They’ve got lots of space to play with each other.”
Jodie owns East Coast Exotics, a pet shop in Aberdeen that breeds and sells a menagerie of unusual animals.
The most famous kinkajou owner is Paris Hilton who was bitten by Baby Luv, her pet honey bear.
Jodie joked: “I never thought I would ever have anything in common with Paris Hilton.”
