A bond of friendship shared by a goose and a monkey ended in heartbreak for the owner of a house that burned down in Plutaluang when both animals died as one tried to save the other from the flames.
A bolt of lightning sparked the flames that roared through the Moo 1 village house Dec. 1. Firefighters needed more than an hour to quell the blaze, which also destroyed a pickup truck in the driveway.
Owner Somsak Phuangshang lost his house and his unusual pets when a lightning strike started a fire that gutted his home.
Inside the home fireman found the charred remains of a resident goose named Samlee and his monkey pal Michael. Both males, they were raised together on the property and had developed a unique cross-species kinship.
The bird had been inside the home when the fire began, while the human owner of the property, Somsak Phuangshang, 44, had the monkey chained up in back. Michael apparently broke free and went inside the burning home to fetch his feathered friend, who had fled into the bathroom to escape the fire.
Neither made it out alive.
Somsak said he was away when the fire began. He said he’d adopted Samlee after it escaped a nearby temple.
He buried both animals together underneath Michael’s favorite coconut tree.
