Having a pet is a great way to find companionship. While most people think of things like cats, dogs, fish, and birds as pets, some people get any number of other things as pets.

Of course, years ago there was the ‘pet rock’ craze, which was a lot of fun. Then there are lots of people who like more exotic animals as pets including monkeys, peacocks, and even tigers.

So, maybe it is not surprising that New Zealand has ‘adopted’ a pet cloud.

The cloud is known as “Taieri Pet” and is a sausage-shaped cloud that forms locally near the Otago mountains, which are located on the South Island. It has been forming for decades and has been enjoyed by locals for a very long time.

It was first mentioned in the Otago Witness newspaper way back in 1896.

The first image of it was captured in 1951 by an aircraft. The black and white photo can be seen below:

On September 7th, 2024 a picture of it was taken by the Landsat 8 satellite. At the time, the cloud was about 700 kilometers (434 miles) above the surface of the Earth. This image can be seen at the bottom of this post.

This type of cloud forms in locations where wind is blocked by something large. The object blocks the air, which results in winds going up and over the barrier. As this wave of air moves, the humid air goes up and down, resulting int he water vapor condensing into the cloud.

This could be a building, or in this case, a mountain. John Law is a meteorologist at New Zealand’s MetService. He reported to NASA Earth Observatory, saying:

“As the cloud forms on the crest of this wave, it remains almost stationary in the sky and is shaped by the strong winds blowing through it.”

I never would have thought to adopt a pet cloud.

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