Well, it looks like a giant hamster, but it’s actually a capybara, the largest rodent on the planet, and it makes a great pet,apparently.

Melanie Typaldos, from Buda, Texas first came into contact with a capybara on a trip in Venezuela. Her daughter Coral fell in love with them the moment she got to pick one up and hold it in her arms. The moment they returned home, Melanie began searching for a capybara as a pet. She found 11-day-old Caplin Rous on a rare animal farm in Texas and it instantly became a member of their family.

You’re probably wondering what the deal is about the ‘Rous’ part of this capybara’s name, and well you should. ROUS stands for Rodent Of Unusual Size, and it’s apparently pronounced ‘rose’.

Talking about Caplin, owner Melanie Typaldos says it has the most adorable habits of waking her up in the morning. She usually makes a gentle ‘eep’ sound and gradually ‘raises’ her voice until she reaches her goal. Other times the now two-and-a-half year old capybara climbs up to her pillow and taps her on the face until she wakes up.

He loves taking warm baths and swimming in the pool, when the weather allows it, and he accompanies the whole family on outings. He also has his own blog, a MySpace and Twitter account (with 2,900 followers). Caplin Rous is definitely the world’s most famous Capybara.

Photos by Melanie Typaldos

27 -year-old Lucian Craita, from Romania, parted ways with his pet lion, Richie, after raising him in his backyard for over a year.

Lucian has always had always had a thing for lions and when he had the chance to buy one for a pet, from an animal market, he didn’t hesitate. Richie cost him just 1,000 euros and he never regretted spending the money. Over a year and a half of living together, Lucian and Richie developed a truly special relationship, so you can imagine the young man’s grief when he had to hand his pet lion over to the Vier Pfoten animal association.

The Romanian gave up his friend voluntarily, after realizing he couldn’t offer it the life it deserved. Now Richie will be taken to Lion’s Rock Lion Reservation, in South Africa, where he can be with his own kind. Because Richie spent so much time as a house pet, he will never be a real lion, but at least he’ll enjoy being free in the savanna.

Photos by REUTERS via Xinhua

For those of you that don’t know anything about Andre, he was the star of a 90’s children’s flick about an adorable little seal that gets adopted by a young girl and spends some time as her pet. As much as I loved seeing Andre acting goofy on screen, I have to wonder if a house is really the best place to raise a seal. Apparently this woman seems to think so.