The late Michael Jackson’s beloved pet tiger Thriller has moved on from the green pastures of Neverland Ranch to the even greener ones of tiger heaven. The 13-year-old, 375-pound cat lived with Jackson on the ranch until 2006, when the pop icon left Neverland. Thriller and his brother Sabu then lived on a $79,000 compound on a lake in actress Tippi Hedren’s animal preserve in Acton, Calif., where Hedren says Jackson never called to check on them and never sent money to help pay for their care. The big cat passed away of lung cancer and was cremated—and will probably be taking up his neglect issues with his master in person, wherever they are now.
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In 2010, animal lover and actress Reese Witherspoon got a pair of donkeys named Honky and Tonky after falling in love with some of her friends’ pets. “They’re just docile and sweet,” Witherspoon told Ellen DeGeneres in December. “I call them badonkadonks.” Now, they’re reportedly being a pain in the Oscar-winning actress’ badonkadonk. The donkeys have been making noise and angering Witherspoon’s neighbors, so much so that they sent her a letter to complain, Us Weekly reports. However, the donkeys are not Witherspoon’s only odd pets: She also has two pigs, three goats, 20 chickens, three dogs, and her very own pony. “I have one horse,” Witherspoon told DeGeneres. “It’s hanging with the donkey; it’s sweet.”
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Jason Merritt / Getty Images; Craig Borrow / Newspix / Getty Images
George Clooney’s longest relationship ever might have been with a pig. The actor owned Max, a 300-pound pig, for 18 years until the he died in 2006. “He was as old a pig as the vets had ever seen,” Clooney told People magazine. The bachelor was so close to Max that he sometimes allowed him to sleep in his bed and accompany him to interviews. His pet was so irreplaceable that when asked if he would get another pig, Clooney replied, “No, I think Max covered all my pig needs.”
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Steve Granitz / WireImage; Jason Towlen / AP Photo
Bubbles the chimpanzee was Michael Jackson’s constant companion in the late 1980s. In a videotaped interview, the eccentric singer stated that his pet would use his toilet, help him clean, and used a spoon and fork at the dinner table. Jackson also allegedly said that he and Bubbles shared a bed in the same video. But their honeymoon period ended by early 2002, when Bubbles was removed from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch because he became too aggressive. The following year, a depressed Bubbles reportedly attempted suicide, according to The Telegraph. But Bubbles is OK now and currently lives at the Center for Great Apes in Florida, where he spends his time painting and hanging out with other chimps. According to his trainers, he could easily live to age 60. Upon Jackson’s death, the chimp’s trainer told The Telegraph, “Bubbles definitely missed him when they parted and will miss him now.”
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She may have been running from Hitchcock’s Birds, but Tippi Hedren has a long-established love of lions. The actress allegedly kept a fully grown lion as a pet at one point, even though her daughter Melanie Griffith was bitten by one on the set of Roar in 1977. But Hedren now says that wild animals should not be kept as pets. In 1983, Hedren founded the Shambala Preserve to protect exotic animals. After the zoo at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was shut down, his two tigers, Thriller and Sabu, were sent to live at Shambala. When Jackson passed away, Hedren said she had told the tigers that he died. “You don’t know what mental telepathy exists from the human to the animal. But I hope they understood,” Hedren told The Guardian.
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When money is no object, a man can acquire some interesting… and completely ridiculous items. Part of what led to Nicolas Cage’s financial struggles was his purchases of several yachts, a jet, a castle, more than 50 cars, and two islands. But most bizarre of all was his alleged $276,000 spending spree that included two king cobras—Moby and Sheba—and an octopus, New York magazine reported. Cage claims that he bought the octopus because it would help him with his acting, but unfortunately he had to say goodbye to his tentacled companion.
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Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images; Patrik Stollarz / AFP / Getty Images
Is Kristen Stewart secretly on Team Jacob? When the actress fell for a werewolf in The Twilight Saga, she may have been channeling her previous experience with the furry creatures. Stewart’s mother raises wolf-dog hybrids, which are legal in some states. The starlet told David Letterman that the oldest male Jack is “really sweet. He, like, falls at my feet.” When the late-night host reminded Stewart that wolf packs go around killing herds of elk, Stewart retorted, “And you know what? It’s such an awful thing because all the hunters have much more of a privilege to shoot them because that’s the only reason we’re killing the wolves, and it’s awful.” Edward Cullen better watch out.
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Charles Sykes / AP Photo; Monty Sloan / AP Photo
After attending the North American Reptile Breeders Conference and Trade Show in 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio bought a 38-pound Sulcata tortoise for $400. TMZ reported that DiCaprio asked for the biggest tortoise they had. The actor’s 10-year-old tortoise could grow to as big as 200 pounds and he’s still basically a child–tortoises of that kind can easily live for 80 years!
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Ferdaus Shamim / WireImage; Eric Vandeville / Gamma / AP Photo
Buying into trends has its consequences, as Harry Potter star Rupert Grint would know. In the midst of the U.K.’s teacup pig craze, Grint bought one of the tiny porkers, which can sell for up to $1,100. However, there was a rumor that Grint was actually ripped off and bought a normal pig instead. In response to the controversy, the actor told NBC in 2010 that the pig was getting “kind of big now. We’ve got him living outside now.” When asked if his pet species of choice is really the most intelligent, Grint replied, “I haven’t really seen proof of that yet.”
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has had her fair share of pets. Though her Chihuahua Tinkerbell may be the most famous, Baby Luv, her pet kinkajou, an endangered mammal, is definitely the most rare. In 2005, Hilton was reportedly given notice that she had to give up Baby Luv because it is illegal to keep the animal in the U.S. The species is native to forests in South America and the pet could never have been house trained. In spite of all this, Hilton kept Baby Luv around until at least the following year when her beloved pet bit her on the arm. “It seems she thinks animals are as disposable as her friends and fiancés,” a rep for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said of Hilton.
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Though his pet tiger was stolen in The Hangover, in real life, Mike Tyson used to keep pet pigeons. At the age of 11, Tyson got into his first fight after a bully tore the head off of one the pigeons. Tyson now has a reality show about pigeon racing, much to the dismay of PETA. “This is what I love to do– this is a hobby I do with childhood friends, we battle against other friends,” Tyson told Entertainment Weekly of the activity. “It’s a really ancient sport, before Christ even.”
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Move over, Bo Obama! While many presidents have kept pets in the White House, the sixth, John Quincy Adams. reportedly owned an alligator while occupying the Oval Office. The Marquis de Lafayette gave Adams the odd pet, which he reportedly kept in a White House bathroom, along with his wife’s silkworms. And shockingly enough, Adams is not the only president to keep the biting reptiles around: Herbert Hoover allegedly had two gators that he sometimes let roam the White House grounds.
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Library Of Congress / Getty Images; Sam Greenwood / Getty Images
Baby forest animals following a beautiful girl around sounds straight out of a Disney movie, but for screen legend Audrey Hepburn, it was an everyday part of life. While filming her 1959 film Green Mansions, in which her animal sidekick is a fawn, the movie’s animal trainer suggested that Hepburn take the baby critter home with her so that it could learn to follow her around. Photographs of the two pals going about their business—one memorable snapshot shows Hepburn at a Beverly Hills grocery store with Pippin, nicknamed Ip, inspecting a box of Honey Grahams at her side—chronicle the pair’s time together.
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