Raccoon forms sweet friendship with orphaned fawn, gives her lots of hugs.

It’s always heartwarming to see friendships blossom between different animals. Sometimes friendships transcend species.

Carrie Long, a qualified wildlife rehabilitator, received a call last year about a distressed newborn raccoon. He’d been abandoned by his mother at the age of three weeks and was discovered clinging to life during a rainstorm.

Long, whose group, Texas Fawn and Friends, specializes in saving orphaned deer, chose to take in the raccoon. Jasper was his name.”We weren’t sure he was going to make it,” Long admitted to The Dodo.Jasper lived because of Long’s generosity and care, and he’s now paying it forward.

Despite reaching adulthood and being free to venture out on his own, Jasper has chosen to remain a resident of Long’s deer refuge. He now joyfully shares the spacious territory with the 75 orphaned deer in Texas Fawn and Friends’ care — but one in particular has definitely captured his heart.

Hope is her name. She, too, lost her mother when she was a child. But Jasper makes certain she is never alone.Jasper lived because of Long’s generosity and care, and he’s now paying it forward.

“Jasper just loves her,” Long said. “When he sees her, he runs to lick and love on her. It’s just the cutest thing.”

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Also to read: Baby Raccoon rescued and returned to mother’s hands