Kitten & Owl Become Internet Sensation

An unsual friendship between an owl and a kitten has customers at a coffee shop in Osaka city cooing and the Japanese language internet buzzing.

The pair live at the Hukulou Coffee shop (pronounced 'foo-koo-loh'), named after the Japanese word "owl" and have been taken up by multiple popular Japanese online blog sites which picked up pictures the coffee shop put up on twitter.

Fuku-chan (pronounced foo-koo-chan), a five year old owl, which is the size of an average smartphone, has struck up a frienship with Marimo (pronounced "mah-ree-moh"), a two-month old Scottish Fold kitten.

Marimo and Fuku-chan hit it off immediately after the coffee shop owners brought home the kitten as a playmate for the lonely Fuku-chan, the coffee shop's owners said.

Hukulou Coffee owner Ritsuko Nagahara (pronounced "ree-tsoo-koh-nah-gah-hah-rah"­) told Reuters in an email that they were put together because they looked alike. Now they are inseparable.

Pictures of them sleeping together or seemingly kissing dominate the twitter search feed for the Japanese word for owl and have been taken up by multiple bloggers and online news sites.

Fuku-chan likes to peck at Marimo, and Marimo occasionally nips Fuku-chan in return - though occassionally the kitten also puts in a friendly playful punch, which Fuku-chan grins and bears.

However the owners don't know whether Fuku-chan is male or female, and a DNA test is needed to find out.

One thing is certain is that the two are on their way to internet stardom

"This is too cute. Can't keep our eyes off them," said one blogger on a popular blog site who featured both very prominently.