Barking up the wrong tree - KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2

Columbus, Ohio — (WCMH) There aren’t many mistakes at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, but when they do make a mistake, it’s a doozy.

A program at the zoo has dogs and cats living together – and it got its start from an experiment that had the zoo barking up the wrong tree.

Five years ago, zoo vice president Suzi Rapp found herself with a baby cheetah who had to be hand-raised. She put him with two Anatolian Shepherd puppies to test her idea of raising the shy cat with a bolder dog, to allow the adopted family to go on the road with Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Director Emeritus Jack Hanna.

“What the dog does, it gives them the security a cheetah wouldn’t normally have,” Rapp said.

The cat loves the dogs. The dogs love the cat.

But there is a problem.