A Gorilla Who Knew Sign Language Asked for a Kitten. When She Finally Got One, She Treated It Like Her Baby

Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo, and she grew up to become one of the most famous gorillas in the world.

Her teacher, Penny Patterson, taught her American Sign Language. By the mid-1980s, Koko was using about 600 signs and understood hundreds more.

And one of the things she wanted most was a cat.

Koko loved picture books like “The Three Little Kittens” and “Puss ’n’ Boots.” When she asked for a kitten and got a stuffed toy instead, she was terribly upset. She refused to play with it and kept signing “sad.”

So for her birthday in July 1984, Koko was allowed to pick a real kitten from a litter. She chose a little gray-and-white tailless Manx and named it “All Ball.”

The 230-pound gorilla held the kitten, petted it, played chase with it, and even tried to nurse it like a baby. She would sign “Soft. Good. Cat.”

That December, All Ball wandered onto the highway near the research center and was hit by a car. When the staff told Koko, she acted as if she didn’t hear them for about 10 minutes. Then she began to whimper, the sound gorillas make when they are sad. “We all started crying together,” said Ron Cohn, of The Gorilla Foundation.

Their story became the children’s book “Koko’s Kitten,” and the two were on the cover of National Geographic.

Years later, for her 44th birthday in 2015, Koko got her wish again. A whole litter of kittens came to visit, and she adopted two of them, Ms. Grey and Ms. Black. This video shows her meeting them.

Koko died in June 2018, at 46.

Have you ever seen two unlikely animals become best friends? Share this with someone who loves animals.