A monkey in southern India seems to have a serious case of ‘puppy love’ and has ‘adopted’ a homeless puppy.

Both monkey and the puppy are so close and their bond so unbreakable, that they go everywhere together.

The series of touching photographs of the pair have been viewed 170,000 times on Facebook, which show the rhesus macaque feeding, cleaning and protecting the tiny puppy as though it were its own baby.

The monkey is also seen picking dirt and fleas off the little dog, in a cleaning session in the middle of the street. Bizarrely, he even clutches the puppy to its chest as it leaps from a tree — as the dog holds on.

“It seems the monkey must have lost its baby and was heartbroken. It is quite possible that it saw its own baby in the puppy and decided to protect and adopt it,” an onlooker told.

When a bowl of food was put out for the pair, the monkey stepped back and let the little puppy eat its fill first. As it ate, the monkey stood over the puppy, sheltering it from danger.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 6th, 2015