VIDEO: Koko the Gorilla Adopts Two New Kittens

Koko asked for her new furry friends to be placed on her head

One the world’s most dedicated cat ladies isn’t a lady at all. She’s a gorilla.

Koko is a 44-year-old western lowland gorilla born at the San Francisco Zoo and raised by Francine “Penny” Patterson in Woodside, California, where she learned sign language and how to understand more than 2,000 English words.

Through her training, the gorilla learned the word and sign for cat, and started asking for feline of her own. Koko was not satisfied with cat stuffed animals, so on her birthday in 1984, she was allowed to pick a kitten to adopt. The gorilla proved to be a devoted caretaker to the kitten, treating the little feline like a baby gorilla.

Because of Koko’s cat parenting skills she has been allowed to keep kitties as companions since getting her first kitten in 1984, making her one of the few animals to keep pets.

Koko recently picked out her newest fur babies, choosing two kittens named Ms. Gray and Ms. Black. The video above shows the pussycat-loving primate meeting her new friends for the first time and starting the bonding process.

You can tell the ape is a real animal lover when she asks for Ms. Gray to be placed on her head.