‘Cause this guy has one. Check it out:

This penguin swims thousands of miles every year to visit the Brazilian man who saved his life. Joao Pereira de Souza found this Magellanic penguin crippled with oil-slicked feathers and close to death near his home. Joao cleaned him up and nursed him back to health. Now the penguin, dubbed JinJing, has adopted him.

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” de Souza told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”

Picture credit: TV Globo

Although it’s not common, penguins do sometimes end up in Brazil after getting sent a little off course by currents. But I’m pretty sure this is the only one trying to replace dogs as man’s best friend.