Cheetah cub and puppy become fast friends at San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Cats and dogs can get along, after all.

Earlier this week, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park posted a video of new friends Ruuxa and Raina playing in the animal care nursery.

Ruuxa is a 7-week-old cheetah cub. Raina is his 8-week-old Rhodesian ridgeback puppy companion.

Ruuxa, chosen as a Safari Park ambassador, was rejected by his mother at birth and had to be hand-raised by keepers at the zoo. For companionship, he was paired with a domestic dog.

Raina will be Ruuxa's lifelong companion.

"Cheetah cubs and puppies develop at vastly different rates," said Susie Ekard, animal training manager at San Diego Zoo Safari Park. "Raina is very sweet-natured and loves Ruuxa, but Raina is twice the size of Ruuxa and is very enthusiastic, so we will provide supervised visits between the pair until the cheetah gets older and stronger."

As the duo grow up together, Raina's body language should relax and calm Ruuxa, reassuring the cheetah that the zoo environment is safe.

"Ruuxa is less apprehensive than the other cheetahs that have met their dogs," Janet Rose-Hinostroza, an animal training manager at Safari Park, told TODAY.com.

"It was our plan all along that he would just know Raina from his earliest memories, take it in stride, and hopefully feel more like she’s a sibling. He recognizes her as another animal and recognizes her as a playmate. He seeks out playing with that dog, which is so funny. … He's very curious about her, very interested in her."

"In this relationship, the dog is always [assuming] the role of the older sibling," she added. "They’re actually the dominant animal in the relationship."

Ruuxa and Raina's new friendship is part of the zoo's strategy to save cheetahs, which are already extinct in 20 countries and are facing extinction elsewhere.