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I'm Taking Her Home with Me!
aka: Omochikaeri

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Fuko can and will go ahead and make her a younger sister.

"HAUUUU~! OMOCHIKAERI [I wanna take it home with me]~!"

There are times when something is just so pure, innocent, right and adorably cute that even the most level-headed persons are struck by a quaint phenomenon we TV Tropers like to call Cuteness Proximity, in which all pretenses of stoic maturity are dropped to reveal an affectionate and nurturing, sweet-tongued Cuddle Bug teddy bear who wants to hug the subject of cuteness all day long. Sometimes, it can get so bad that said persons cannot comprehend and withstand the intense emotional effects.

Sometimes, the Cuteness Proximity is so intense that it stirs not only mere affection, but actual paternal and maternal love. The afflicted will want to actually become the adorable one's father, mother or older sibling, and will:

  1. Ask the guardian whether they could "take them home" with a goofy grin on their face. Usually, the answer is no.
  2. Grab the poor little one and shout "I'm taking them home with me!" as they run off like a kidnapper.

More so than Cuteness Proximity, this will either endear the audience to what is obviously a very warm and loving person, or seriously creep them out by revealing what is obviously a dangerous pervert.

Sometimes it's justified when the cute kid, person, or animal in question is clearly in a situation where this trope would be beneficial (i.e. if they were a homeless orphan or a stray puppy). It might also be justified if the cute kid/person/animal is in a dangerous home, as getting them out of there and giving them a safe place to stay would be the best thing one could do for them. However, this doesn't always apply and (if the person pulling this trope doesn't ask the right questions) might veer into kidnapping territory (even if they have good intentions).

Another way this can end badly is if the abductor Does Not Know His Own Strength, and their overly physical expression of affection spells doom for poor little "George". Occasionally, the "cute creature" in question is either Ugly Cute at best, or downright monstrous at worse.

See also Abduction Is Love, Endearingly Dorky. Often invoked with an Abandoned Pet in a Box (see above). May cross over with Adopting the Abused. Has absolutely nothing to do with Taking You with Me. Hopefully.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In the ARIA manga, Akari attempts this on Albert, after seeing him helpless with his filled-up boat.
  • Played for Laughs in Chapter 27 / Episode 8 of Asteroid in Love, when Moe attempts to take Ao away in the name of "elopement".
  • The cold-hearted, and, at times, cruel Battle Butler Sebastian in Black Butler is shown to adore cats of all types because "there is nothing cuter." It's later revealed that he actually picked up several stray cats and kept them in his wardrobe.
  • A more serious example occurs in Bleach where in Riruka's flashback, she had done this to the guy she had a crush on, imprisoning him inside her treasure box. She stopped when she realized how badly her powers were affecting the guy and let him go. More exactly: Riruka actually weaponizes this trope. Anything and anyone she finds cute, she can snatch it with her powers and keep it for herself. She started with petty theft as a little girl (stealing the heart-shaped necklace of the neighbor that bullied her), then used it as described above.
  • In A Centaur's Life, little Sue seems to trigger this reaction in a lot of people. As the Chis put it, "Sue-chan is little and cute, so she gets kidnapped like that." Their friend's dog once tried to claim her as a toy, and another time a new arrival in the neighborhood tried to claim her as a little sister.
  • The pet store clerk in Chi's New Address does this even after discovering Chi has an owner. The reason she can't have one is because her little brother is afraid of cats — but as it turns out, her brother happens to be Yohei's friend Ryu, who got over his fear about 20 episodes before this was revealed.
  • This is Alice's reaction when she finally encounters Yune in Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth, which is entirely understandable, given that Alice is a 19th-century Occidental Otaku meeting an actual Japanese person for the first time and that Yune is just that cute.
  • Referenced in episode 9 of the new season of Darker than Black. Cosplay Otaku Girl Kiko and her like-minded friend see Suo, who happens to look like some anime character that they like. The friend suggests they take her home with them. This may be a Shout-Out to Rena, since she uses exactly the same phrasing ("Omochikaeri~!"). Kiko, who has finally figured out she's not in a show where that's a viable option, says:
    Kiko: I'm not into lolicon. Besides, that's illegal.
  • In Di Gi Charat, Takuro Kimura favors Puchiko the most, and has a habit of picking her right up and speaking affectionately to her. In his debut appearance, he even asks Dejiko if he could "buy" her.
  • A creepy (though hilarious) version happens in chapter 210 of D.Gray-Man. A random gangster who, according to his crony, "loves all beautiful things to a sick degree," decides that Kanda is the most beautiful person he has ever seen and declares, "I'm going to kidnap him and bring him back home!" Kanda promptly beats him to a pulp.
  • Mei Tachibana does this to any object she finds to be cute in Dropkick on My Devil, and then she lays eyes on Jashin who she's determined to bring home with her.
  • Gajeel Redfox in Fairy Tail, hilariously enough. He spends most of his time being an utter grouchy badass, but has an obsession with finding a cat companion to call his own. And when he finds the perfect one, he is very adamant on bringing said cat back with him. Do note said "Cat" is one of the most badass animals to ever grace a manga's pages. In this case however, it's less about cuteness and more about, as his two fellow Dragon Slayers have cat companions with them, he figures he's lacking as a Dragon Slayer if he didn't find one as well. Pantherlily's badassness is exactly why Gajeel likes him. Not that the cuteness isn't an element. Gajeel and the rest of Fairy Tail meet Pantherlily in an alternate reality. There, he is a tall muscular individual, towering over them. However, when Pantherlily follows them back to their world, he ends up in a chibi form much like Happy and Carla (and thus allowing a hilariously tearful Gajeel to hug him with glee). He is able to use Magic to revert to his Badass form for short periods of time, though.
  • Though not to the point of the trope's name, after Tohru's initial encounter with Kisa in Fruits Basket, the latter follows the former around for the duration of her stay. While Kyo cracks that it would bug the crap out of him, after Tohru stops walking and Kisa bumps into her, Tohru squeals and glomps her. After Kisa leaves, Tohru mentions her slight sadness at not having her around. Later volumes of manga have scenes where other characters are talking and the reader can see little hearts floating into the more serious panels, revealed to be emanating from Tohru and Kisa hugging each other. Every time they see one another, Tohru has the same squeal-and-glomp reaction.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist, Alphonse has a tendency to pick up cats and keep them in his armor. Edward is not happy about this. Referenced hilariously when Ed assumes Al's found another cat in an alley. Except it's not a cat, it's Mei.
  • Yuki Nagato, of all people, reacts this way in The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya when she finds the newly revived "Achakura", proceeding to place her in her bag and literally take her home. Subverted in that she did it ostensibly to observe her, but in reality, is keeping her prisoner to use as free labor.
  • Isumi Saginomiya in Hayate the Combat Butler. She will make your head explode into candy. Then again, Wataru's maid Saki would invite such a reaction too... especially when she's crushed emotionally.
  • Rena Ryuuguu from Higurashi: When They Cry is the Trope Namer (see the Visual Novels section), and is well known for doing this. Hell, the running joke in the series is that if ever someone gets kidnapped, Rena would be the prime suspect!
  • In chapter 12 of Honey Hunt, Q-Ta hugs Yura before leaving to go on a trip to record something and tells her that she's cute. So cute that he just wants to put her in his suitcase and take her with him.
  • In episode 3 of Is the Order a Rabbit?, Sharo jokingly suggests taking Chino home with her and making her a little sister. Cocoa doesn't take that too well, and claims Chino is her little sister.
  • In Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, Nagi sees a pair of kittens curled up and sleeping outside of Jin's house. She finds them so irresistibly cute that she wants to take care of them herself. Jin's not too keen on the idea, as his current living arrangement prevents animals from taking up residence inside.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
    • Lady of War Shigure has this reaction to a tank she commandeered. Sakaki tells her no.
    • More traditionally, Miu and Kisara both love cats and often want to look after them, but Miu can't take one home because the dojo is too dangerous, and Kisara's parents are allergic to cats.
  • A non-comedic example in The Kindaichi Case Files. A rich butterfly collecter is so obsessed with butterflies that when he finds an amnesiac young man with a butterfly-shaped scar on his back, he takes the stranger home to become his assistant, and frequently forcing him to strip whenever he wants to look at the scar.
  • In Kotoura-san, this was played with in episode 2 when Haruka first meets Yuriko. The latter is ecstatic to meet the former, and attempts to carry her to the ESP club room. Downplayed as part of the reason was Haruka is telepathic.
  • Kyouran Kazoku Nikki has this line spoken in one episode in which Kyouka becomes a magical girl.
  • Macross Frontier. Ranka Lee does this to a little cute squirrel thingy which she later names Ai-kun. However with this being Macross, said trope is inverted when it is revealed that Ai-kun is a Space Vajra larvae, who takes Ranka home with it later. Of course, it's arguable that the Vajra were trying to do that with Ranka in the first place
  • In Mahoraba, the eccentric president of the occult club takes an intense liking to Asami-chan, who is the first person to be so innocent that she finds her creepy jokes funny.
  • In Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou, this is Matsuri's reaction upon meeting Yuzu. She claims that aside from Aki, she happens to be the cutest one there and ends up asking her to become her little sister.
  • In the seventh chibi special of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, called Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Wedding, Kobayashi at one point has to open a giant Matryoshka doll to reveal inside Kanna Kamui dressed in a Russian garb and acting all cute. This prompts Kobayashi to say the phrase verbatim.
  • In Monster Musume, the 7ft-tall oni Tio visits an aquarium and tries to leave with a dolphin. She is stopped by the workers there.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • In One Piece, the pirate Big Mom is a Collector of the Strange — more specifically, unique creatures. She takes an unhealthy interest in the living skeleton Brook and decides to keep him on a leash in a bag, swinging him around like a toy. Luckily, the rest of the Straw Hats are able to save rescue Brook while Big Mom's sleeping.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club, Honey gets this reaction from pretty much every female (and some males) that see him, being a senior but having the rough size and appearance of an incredibly adorable blonde eight-year-old, particularly when he's got his stuffed bunny with him, as he usually does. He's even more sugary than the sweets he's almost always seen munching on — but watch out, he's not exactly a pushover when it comes to a fight!
  • In Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Stocking has this reaction when she sees the Sperm Ghosts. Admittedly, for being the ghosts of vengeful wasted sperm, they are pretty adorable.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • During the first few seasons, Misty did this regularly with cute Pokémon, either attempting to capture them (such as with Jigglypuff) or just picking them right up (such as Vulpix before Brock adopts it, which breathes fire into her face for it).
    • Iris from Pokémon the Series: Black & White also tends to react this way around the Monster of the Week. Her actions usually result in the Pokémon hiding from her or attacking her.
    • While Iris has only done this on some few occasions, Bonnie from Pokémon the Series: XY takes this to a new level, with one of her motivations for traveling is to seek for "cute" Pokémon to keep.
    • In Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, the Team Rocket trio gets taken home by a Bewear that seems to have taken a liking to them at the end of Episodes 3 and 4.
  • In the first episode of Popotan, Mii is incredibly fond of Daichi's cheeks upon discovering him, and takes every opportunity to glomp him and rub her own against his.
  • Shin from Prétear manages to get chased by about 20 schoolgirls he is trying to test to find the eponymous Pretear.
  • In The Quintessential Quintuplets, at least a couple of times Yotsuba has mentioned that she wants to make Fuutarou's younger sister Raiha into her own little sister, since it's clear that she's very fond of her, even suggesting things like marrying Fuutarou or falsifying a birth certificate to make it legal. Doubles as Foreshadowing since she turns out to be the one who marries Fuutarou at the end of the story.
  • Ranma ½: Azusa Shiratori is very prone to grabbing new "cute" items and giving them a French name, and then claiming ownership of them. If it resists, she'll knock it out. If it's yours, and you resist, she'll knock you out. In the anime version, she tries to "adopt" a half-eaten rice cake soon afterward. When Genma manages to polish it off before she can steal it, she screams in horror and beats him senseless. Her collection, in the few glimpses we've seen of her mansion, has been shown to include an octopus balloon, a stop sign, and even weirder things. In an anime-exclusive episode, she adopts a Tanuki statue — and when Kunô cuts his way out of it (it fell on him beforehand), she promptly adopts him as well, thinking he must be a real tanuki.
  • Ramen Fighter Miki: Parodied with Miki: As a child, she used to take home kittens, a Miniature Senior Citizen who fainted, and some bullied kids. As a Womanchild, she takes home a criminal she defeated.
  • Depraved Homosexual Lussuria from Reborn! takes a liking to his young opponent Ryohei's muscular physique and decides to take him home... after he's kicked the shit out of him that is...
  • In Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, once Adorably Precocious Child Majiru is introduced, following his Parental Abandonment, Harumi comments on how cute he is and proposes that the class should take turns taking him home with them. Majiru protests that he's not a pet.
  • One story in the Shoujo Jump edition had a girl who helps a friend (boyfriend?) catch a wild rabbit in a snare. After accomplishing the deed we see into her mind the scenarios of her keeping the rabbit as a pet (feeding it, giving it its own little house, etc.) much to her friend's chagrin. She's horrified to discover that her friend has a more "culinary" interest in the animal, and she lets it escape.
  • Eisuke Kitamura in Stepping on Roses (Hadashi De Bara Wo Fume) appears to have this as his motivation for constantly bringing home orphaned children... that is, until he reveals that he really just wanted them to work for him in his future business endeavors when they get older.
  • A particular example happens in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, where an elementary school kid has this reaction upon seeing the (self-proclaimed) Teen Genius Akechi Kokoro. She can't get over how cute Kokoro is and asks her to become her little sister. She actually goes through with it at the end of the episode.
  • In Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Tomo's mother Akemi says that she spends all day surrounded by ugly guys (her husband's martial arts students) and doesn't see cute girls very often; as such, when girls do visit the house she gloms onto them. When Tomo's friends come over to visit, Akemi instantly latches onto Carol, declaring that she's going to adopt the young woman as her new daughter. Carol seems okay with this, but Tomo is annoyed by both her mother's attitude and the implication that she got lumped in with the "ugly guys".
  • Takanashi in Wagnaria!! is a minicon — someone who thinks anything tiny is inherently cute. Showing him anything small is guaranteed to get this reaction from him — which can be creepy when the object in question is a four-year-old girl who got separated from her mom. He invokes this one by name when the already-tiny Popura curls into a ball.
  • World Destruction: In the manga, this is Kyrie's reaction toward Toppi when the latter and Morte save his life. Toppi does not take being called "cute" well.

    Comic Books 
  • Blackest Night:
    • Larfleeze wants his own Guardian, so when our heroes encounter Scar — an evil, half-undead Guardian who serves the story's Big Bad — he wants to do this.
    • Kryb, the Sinestro Corps member who compulsively abducts infants and keeps them in her exposed ribcage.
  • DC Comics Bombshells:
    • When Batwoman meets Helena, she wonders if she and Maggie could adopt the girl.
    • After Lois Lane is rescued by the Batgirls, Felicity Smoak excitedly asks, "Can we keep her?"
    • When Kathy Kane and Renee Montoya take in Jason Todd.
  • Ms. Marvel (2014): When Kamala Khan meets The Inhumans' dog Lockjaw, she goes into Freaky Is Cool Cuteness Overload, then takes him home with her and asks her parents if she can keep him.
  • Supergirl:
    • The titular heroine does this in Action Comics issue #308 when she finds a missing little girl and decides to take her home with her until she finds her parents.
    • The Supergirl from Krypton (2004): Superman insists over and over again that he is taking his cousin Kara home with him.
    • The Untold Story of Argo City: Deconstructed. Allura In-Ze steals a cute little robot girl because it reminds her of her daughter Kara, whom she badly misses after several weeks of forced separation. Nobody finds Allura's actions cute or amusing, and Zor-El takes it as a sign that his wife's grief is causing her to lose contact with reality.
    • "Supergirls Super Pet": After being saved by Linda, Streaky begins following her around. Delighted, Linda decides to adopt the cute, adorable tabby cat on the spot, and asks the orphanage's headmistress if she can keep it, please, please, PLEASE?
  • Wonder Woman, Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: "Wonder World" features a version having more to do with awe and a desire for friendship when 15-year-old Diana fresh into the wider world inserts herself into Riley's birthday gathering to deal with some bullies. One of Riley's other friends asks her where she found Diana and Riley responds that she doesn't really know but she's keeping her.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • The Blood of the Covenant: When Iroh sees Kallik for the first time and realizes how much he resembles Ozai, he believes that he's the long-lost Prince Zuko and basically kidnaps him so he can be brought back to the Fire Nation (while also trying to bond with the kid and train him properly in firebending). Lu Ten, the crew, and especially Kallik are confused by his behavior, and Lu Ten tells his father that, even though Iroh treats Kallik well and has good intentions, kidnapping is wrong and they have no guarantee that Kallik, who grew up in another culture with another family, will even want to be a part of the Fire Nation. Even though Iroh's right about Kallik being Zuko.
  • Played for Horror in the Big Hero 6 fic Bruises. After hearing Tadashi's descriptions of Hiro, Callaghan convinces himself that Hiro is exactly like his late daughter Abigail, and that he can have her back by kidnapping the teen and forcing Hiro to dress/behave like she would.
  • Can I Keep Him?: The Elder Stormcutter pulled this when he found baby!Hiccup during a dragon raid and kidnapped him, intending to raise the human as his son.
  • Frequently used in Code Geass fics, having this a very common reaction to people meeting Nunnally. Not finding her this way is a common way for fans to depict certain characters, such as V.V, as even more monstrous than they already are.
  • In Days at The Namikaze-Uzumaki Household, Shisui Uchiha has this in regard Miruku Namikaze, the youngest daughter of Minato and Kushina. When Shisui repeatedly insists on taking Miruku home and taking care to her, Kushina tricks him into asking Minato instead, which leads him to be assigned to a long-term mission far away from Konoha (and Miruku).
  • In the third part of The Dresden Fillies, "Great Power", Pinkie Pie finds a lost human toddler shortly after they arrive in Chicago. She brings him back to the rest of the Mane Six and Spike and asks if they can keep him. Fluttershy has this reaction, telling Twilight that she wants one, and that she'll take good care of it.
  • A Frozen Miracle: When Julieta finds a baby mysteriously abandoned near Casita, she immediately falls in love with it. When no one comes looking for her, she decides (with Alma's blessing) to raise the baby as her own. Agustin instantly falls in love with her, too. They name her Esperanza Madrigal, and are completely unaware that she's actually the missing child princess of Arendelle...
  • When Mei Terumi meets Fu in Guyver Naruto, she crushes her in a hug and wonders if the Hokage will let her take the young girl home with her.
  • The Hill of Swords: Any time Tabitha shows her vulnerable side, Shirou has to suppress an urge to take her home and give her "adorable ponies and dollies and pretty dresses".
  • If Wishes Were Ponies: Twilight Sparkle, after learning that Harry Potter not only has uncommon magical traits but has been abused and is now in a world that's completely alien to him, offers to become his guardian a day after they meet. Roughly two years later, she legally adopts him.
  • It's not unknown in KanColle fanwork for ship-girls to take enemy boss Northern Ocean Princess, who looks like a white-haired red-eyed little girl with small horns, home with them.
  • Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus, Asher (Shadow Sycamore as a reminder) reacts this way upon falling in love with a Mirage Murkrow, giving them cuddles and nicknaming them "Murky". He's at first saddened tht he can't keep the Pokémon (because Mirage Pokémon can only stay in the Ninjala Car, where the Mirage system is) until Rimuru creates a Mirage Ball to let Asher take Murky with them. Chloe also gets excited at getting a Mirage Houndoom with her, although she doesn't scream a Big "YES!" like Asher does.
  • Performed by the Trope Namer, Ryuguu Rena, on a cosplaying Yuki, in Kyon: Big Damn Hero. Yes, that Yuki. She does this a lot in this story. To Kanae, to her friends' children, to Sasaki. Even about Kyon once, though that time she doesn't use the trope name and gets ribbed for being naughty.
  • The Last Seidr: When Harry admits to the Avengers that he's in another dimension with no immediate way home, Tony (who both likes the kid and wants to learn more about his magic) offers to take him in. Thor does the exact same thing, wanting to take Harry to Asgard. Everyone decides that Tony is the slightly better option because at least Pepper can keep him in check.
  • In Magic Trick, England uses his powers as Britannia Angel to turn Italy into Chibitalia. Everyone, from the Allies to Japan to frigging Prussia, is so overwhelmed by his cuteness that they each want to bring him home with them. Generally, Chibitalia is fine with this. Except for Germany, because he thinks he's scary.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Naru-Hina Chronicles: Naruto feels bad for a baby fox because of the latter's mother being dead. Not having the heart of leaving him all alone, the Uzumaki brings the baby fox to his home and asks Hinata if he can keep him. She agrees on the condition that the wild animal gets checked out.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Inko is so distraught over discovering her sterility that she instantly falls in love with the alien baby she and her husband find in a rocket. She insists on taking the baby home without a second thought, saying that it can't be a coincidence for a child to just fall into their laps.
  • In the Peter Parker Needs A Hug series, Batman's tendency to do this (adopting orphaned children and making them into superheroes) is an inside joke within the Bat family and the Justice League. He inevitably pulls this with Spider-Man when he learns that the seventeen-year-old can't afford to eat everyday. Wonder Woman even jokes about it with him.
  • Property Of: The second Ironhide sees Annabelle Lennox (who'd been abducted by Decepticons and sold on Cybertron as a Human Pet), he says that he'll take her in. While it takes some adjustment, he becomes her Parental Substitute and caretaker for the rest of the fic.
  • The Ranma the Cursed Child segment of Discontinued Ranma Stories has Tatewaki Kunō when Ranma (afflicted with both the Spring of Drowned Girl and Spring of Drowned Young Man) is turned into his cursed form of a cute redhead girl. By the narration's recount, Kunō had "decided that she was precious and adorable and that he was going to take her back home with him." Compounding the issue, everyone around him had drawn the wrong conclusion about what he meant and even his most devoted followers distanced themselves from him after that declaration.
  • When Iruka firsts meets Naruto in Relics of the Past, he finds him so adorable that he asks him if he could take him home. Naruto said yes and they've been adoptive brothers ever since.
  • Running With Death: Dumbledore's political plans were ruined forever when Uncle Fester found baby Harry on the Dursleys' doorstep and took him to Gomez and Morticia, who adopted Harry that day. Meaning Harry Potter is now a member of the one magical family feared by both good and evil wizards.
  • running with lightning feet revolves around Master Jedi Plo Koon outright abducting the Sith warrior who just tried to blow his comm tower up, because he saw the dude wasn't seriously in it. Said Sith warrior — Feral Opress — is mainly baffled, while Koon's Commander Wolffe is out of himself from paranoia and annoyance.
  • Second Bite of the Cherry opens on a five year-old Lan Zhan asking his big brother if Wei Ying can go home with them, because her parents are dead and she's currently living in the streets. Both the brother and uncle immediately fold in font of the argument, and Wei Ying is later adopted into their clan.
  • The Second Try: The usually emotionless Rei Ayanami ends up doing this after finding an adorable four-year-old girl lost in the middle of Tokyo-3, though to her credit she has the sense to contact the authorities and try to find the child's parents first. It's just as well she does take the girl home, though, as she is Shinji and Asuka's Kid from the Future.
  • In Spider-Ninja, Master Splinter did this when he found a freezing, starving four-year-old Petra Parker, and decided to raise her alongside his sons. Justified, in that Petra had just lost her entire family, was scared out of her mind and had literally no where to go. This trope is lampshaded in the third chapter: after April meets the Turtles and Petra, she passes out and Mikey asks if he can keep her. Leo tells him that he can't keep a person, only for Petra to point out that Splinter basically did that to her.
  • In The Taste of Your Magic, Bellatrix Lestrange kidnaps a baby Harry Potter from the Dursleys due to finding him really adorable.
    Bellatrix: You are the most beautiful, the most precious babe in the world, and I will keep you forever.
  • In Chapter 13 of To Hell and Back, Barry tells a story of how a seven-year-old Iris once came across a baby she found so adorable that she tied a note to his stroller telling the parents that she would be borrowing him for a couple of days and walked off with the baby. She would later try to take other babies over the next couple of days.
  • Touhou Project:
    • A voicepack for Suika, of all people, has this very phrase in it. Makes sense, since Oni are traditionally known to carry people off when they lost contests, and Suika is strong enough to carry away anyone she'd want. Fans have taken to joking about taking her home, and then get rebutted by other fans saying that Suika'd take THEM home instead.
    • Touhou's other oni, Yuugi, is also frequently portrayed by fandom as carrying off others. Parsee Mizuhashi is a favorite victim, for some reason.
  • When Did I Become a Parent?: Much like in canon, Pumbaa pulled this when he and Timon found a lion cub in the desert. Before Timon had a chance to complain, he and Pumbaa were foster parents.
  • In a drabble of the Lucky Star fic Unrelated Moments, Tsukasa glomps Yutaka and rants about how cute she is, embarrassing her in front of the former's classmates.
  • A Year To Fill An Empty Home: At the end of Akira Kurusu's year-long probation in Tokyo, his friends take him home on a road trip, but since they arrive late in the evening, his parents offer to put them up for the night. When Akira's mother Chou notices how few of Akira's friends are actually calling parents (single mother, single father, older sister, housekeeper, dorm staff, and no-one at all), she mentally informs her husband that they're adopting all of them this instant.

    Films — Animation 
  • Finding Nemo:
    • Dory the blue tang wants to do this with a cute, very small jellyfish... until she learns that jellyfish sting.
      Dory: I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy. Come here, little Squishy, come on. [ZAP] Ow! Bad Squishy!
    • Likewise, the dentist takes Nemo to give to his niece Darla, believing that a clownfish with an underdeveloped fin like his won't survive in the wild.
  • This is how Kristoff ended up being raised by the troll community in Frozen.
  • In The Lion King, when Timon and Pumba first run across Simba in the desert, Timon's first reaction is to panic because of, well, the food chain. Pumba meanwhile thinks Simba's such a cute little guy that he asks, "Can we keep him?"
  • In The Iron Giant, Hogarth takes a squirrel in a box to his mom's diner to ask if he can keep it. His mom, still recovering from the last time Hogarth brought an animal home ("Remember the raccoon, Hogarth? Ooooh! I remember the raccoon.") predictably says no. The squirrel gets out of the box and into Dean's pants, wreaking havoc on the diner.
  • Migration: The final scene shows Gwen trying to convince Pam to let her take "Toothpick" back home with them.
  • Peanuts: In Snoopy, Come Home, Snoopy comes across a little girl who, without warning, grabs him and drags him to her home, shouting, "Oh, boy! I found a dog!" When Woodstock tries to save Snoopy, the girl takes him too.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • In Baccano! Isaac and Miria do this on someone else's behalf, when they decide that the perfect gift for Ennis would be a little brother. So, they give her Czeslaw.
  • In Battle Royale, this is Hiroki Sugimura's reaction to stray cats... and his classmate Kayoko Kotohiki.
  • Veruca Salt, as mentioned above in Films, wants to take a squirrel home with her in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It doesn't end well.
  • There is a picture book called Children Make Terrible Pets. The story is about a young bear named Lucy who finds a human boy out in the woods. She takes him home, names him "Squeaker", and tries to make a pet out of him. Read that title one more time...
  • Subverted in Dune, and combined with I Have You Now, My Pretty. The Harkonnen's Mentat Piter de Vries wanted to keep Jessica Atreides for himself, but quickly dumps the idea when the Baron offers him to stay and rule Arrakis in his name instead.
  • In the novel Five Children and It, a group of children find a magical creature called a Psammead who grants them all a wish a day. In a moment of misguided altruism, they decide that the one among them who can't ask for a wish (a baby) should have his wish granted, only to learn that his wish is for everyone to want him.
  • Full Metal Panic!:
    • Teresa "Tessa" Testarossa gets this reaction when she introduces herself to Kaname's high school class in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. All the guys go "WOOOAH!" while all the girls cry "Oh she's so cute!" with accompanying love hearts.
    • Sōsuke evidently elicited this kind of response when he was young. Just like in the trope description, his Cuteness Proximity was so incredibly intense, it managed to melt the hearts of war-hardened veterans and pretty much made them internally Squee that they want to take him home and make him their child. Which they then proceed to attempt to do. He certainly never lacked people who were all too eager to take him in as their own. Starting with Majid, an Helmajistani rebellion leader whom Sōsuke had tried to assassinate, who liked him so much that he adopted him as his "Son of Bdakshon's Tiger", and raised him with complete kindness. And then there was Kalinin, who wanted Sōsuke as his son from the very beginning, and took him as a prisoner of war after Sōsuke tried to assassinate him. He then proceeds to persistently try to get Sōsuke to agree to be his adopted son (which he refused, since he already had Majid as his "father" — yes, it got to the point of being a first-come-first-serve basis). After Majid dies, Kalinin finally manages to force his way and get Sōsuke to be his legally adopted son. And all while that was going on, Gauron has tried to take Sōsuke for himself ever since the moment he first set eyes on the boy. He literally did a double take, parked his jeep, and tried to lure Sōsuke to come with him by promising him food and ammunition. Sōsuke refuses, and Gauron ends up being unable to forget him for the next five years. (Though in Gauron's case, it's more of a pedophile rapist, sexual version of wanting to take him home, unlike the previous two, and Sōsuke was wise to get the hell away from him).
    • Sōsuke winds up succumbing to this compulsion himself when coming across an adult Bengal tiger, forcing Kaname to thoroughly explain why he's not allowed to keep a wild 250kg-killing machine as a housecat.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • Tsuruya said this about Mikuru in a waitress costume.
    • Haruhi practically kidnaps poor Mikuru to recruit her into her newly-formed club, simply because of her moe factor. We get to see it from a slightly different perspective in Disappearance, where it's just as hilarious and extremely awesome to boot.
  • In The Kidnapping, by Shiga Naoya, the narrator sees a little girl and decides that he must have her for his own.
  • Legacy of the Dragokin: Zarracka has a new goal; in addition to killing Daniar she's also going to replace her as Benji's mother. Because of this a number of plot events take a different turn then they would have last time.
  • Monster of the Month Club:
    • Burly brings a dog home with him in book 2 as a pet after his night out. Luckily, he was already a stray, so Rilla's able to keep Taco even after Burly stops being alive.
    • Tina really wants to do this with the kitten Milk Dud in book 4. Rilla finally agrees to it, since she sees that Tina really cares for him.
  • In The Time Machine, the Time Traveler has encountered a race of people who are essentially humans that stop developing physically and mentally at age six. He has fallen in like with one of the womenfolk. "Weena I had resolved to bring with me to our own time." (Ch. 7)

    Live-Action TV 
  • Liz does this accidentally on 30 Rock. When handed the baby of a coworker, she has such an extreme case of Cuteness Proximity that she goes into a fugue state and realizes that she is now in her apartment... and still holding the baby.
    Liz: It was like highway hypnosis — you know, when you pull into your driveway and you don't remember driving home.
    Pete: Oh right, and you have someone else's baby in your car.
  • In an episode of Grace Under Fire, Grace's daughter, Libby, tries to keep a squirrel in their yard as a pet. Problems arise however when when it bites Libby while she tries to feed it, and it gets euthanized in order for the vet to test it for rabies.
  • The IT Crowd. Moss can get like this whenever he sees a robot, but when he learns it's for bomb disposal purposes...
    Moss: It's a ROBOT! I haven't seen one in the wild before. Where'd you come from, fella? Huh? Can we keep him, Roy, only if he doesn't belong to anyone?
  • Ryutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O is very fond of cute animals and tends to bring them back to the DenLiner, sometimes regardless of whether they're homeless or not. Reaches an extreme when he does it to a fellow Imagin, which introduces the cast to Sieg...
  • Nellie provokes this during the series finale of The Office (US). When Ryan runs off with Kelly during Dwight and Angela's wedding and abandons his baby there, Nellie promptly fulfills her lifelong dream by adopting his baby and taking him to Europe with her.
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • Samantha Carter makes friends with a little alien boy in "The Nox". O'Neill informs her dryly that, "No, you can't keep him."
    • However, she did get to take home Cassandra, a girl orphaned when the rest of her world was wiped out by a disease created by the Goa'uld Mad Scientist Nirrti. Unfortunately, there's a reason just one was spared. There's a bomb in her gut; if it had gone off, it would have reacted with the Stargate itself resulting in Nuke 'em. She gets better.
  • World's Weirdest Restaurants: The host mentions this when holding a baby monkey in his arms at a restaurant which uses monkeys as servers.
  • An early episode of Would I Lie to You? had panelist Ulrika Jonsson confide to opposing captain David Mitchell that he behaved like a young schoolboy every time he lied, and that it made her want to take him home and put him on a shelf, much to the audience's amusement—and David's bemusement. The temptation quickly passed when the story he was tellingnote  turned out to be true.

    Music 
  • The Beatles:
    It's really good to be here, it's certainly a thrill
    You're such a lovely audience, we'd like to take you home with us, we'd love to take you home!
  • Perhaps Guy Kyser — frontman of Thin White Rope — tossed a few too many oblique words into the salad, but (in the song "Take It Home") he seemed to be evoking this trope. Or attempting to explore the boundaries of its inherent futility:
    Something moving in an airtight room
    Doesn't age a minute for a year in a vacuum
    But dies on the way home[...]
    I can't take this one home
    I can't take this one home
  • Darkly invoked in A Perfect Circle's cover of "The Nurse Who Loved Me":
    I'm taking her home with me, all dressed in white
    She's got everything I need, some pills in a little cup

    Music Videos 
  • Vocaloid:
    • Resident young girl Kaai Yuki. Just Kaai Yuki.
    • Fellow Vocaloid GUMI and her video for "Rampaging Lolitaholic" wants to take Kagamine Rin home with her.

    Podcasts 
  • Fallout Is Dragons: No matter the universe, this is Xencarn's default reaction whenever he encounters some variation of cat.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • In Bayonetta, a Beloved spots the adorable child Cereza. Hearts appear in its eyes, and it hooks her clothes onto its face (don't get the wrong idea, she's still in them), as it tries to "defend" her from Bayonetta. So she summons a dragon made of hair to chomp it in half. Not that she wouldn't have done it if it hadn't taken Cereza.
  • In Bioshock 2, if you have a Little Sister with you and you use a hypnotize plasmid on a splicer, she will sometimes giggle and ask "Can we keep it?"
  • BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle: The Episode RWBY ending has the team transported back to their dorm plus the red Keystone and the System in a weakened form. They eventually decide on keeping the thing as a pet.
  • In Bug Fables, you can rent a Bed Bug, a pillbug dressed in pajamas that acts as a one-use full heal for your party, at which point it returns to its master and needs to be rented again. Leif is so enamored with it that he states they need to rent it as often as possible, so no one else can have it.
  • Devil Survivor 2 takes this to a ridiculous extreme when a Badb Catha grabs one of Lugh's essences, squees like a little girl over having it and saying they are gonna take it home.
  • Dragon Age:
    • If you bring your Mabari War Hound to the city of Denerim in Dragon Age: Origins, he will abruptly run off and return a cutscene later with a small boy in tow. The boy just jumps up and down, excitedly shouting "PUPPY!" You have to convince your dog to take him back home.
    • Anders and Ser Pounce-a-lot in Awakening. In this instance, though, Anders does get to take him home.
  • One possible interpretation of the "Fake Ending" of Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location: if you defeat the secret minigame on Night 5, you get a special cutscene in which Ennard, the animatronic created from pieces of the others, shows up in your house; seeing as the other animatronics were just trying to escape the whole game, it's possible that your character took pity on them and brought Ennard home with him.
  • Grandia 2: Millenia expresses a desire to do this with Roan after Ryudo explains they're not trying to kill him. Whether or not she had any real intent to do so (she's not as evil as she wants people to think she is) is up for grabs, but it should be noted that, aside from Ryudo himself, Millenia treats Roan the best of the group.
  • A House of Many Doors: You can pick up zero-weight passengers like the Trash Puppy (a dog made of grime and trash, but utterly tiny and playful) and the Waif (a little girl who a retired general badass found on his hobby), and can interact with them once[note]ish, if you aren't Save Scumming[/note] per safe room to restore your character's Sanity Meter.
  • Anelace says this almost word for word when she meets Tita in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
  • In Mass Effect 2, Kasumi's reaction to meeting Niftu Cal the BIOTIC GOD!) is "Aww. Can we keep him?"
  • In Mega Man Powered Up, Gutsman and Iceman both have this reaction to Copy Robot while playing as them. Copy Robot is less than amused by this.
  • In Persona 5, Futaba expresses such a desire when she meets the Superboss, Caroline and Justine. She changes her mind quickly once she realizes they're very dangerous Badass Adorables.
  • In Pillars of Eternity, this is how the Watcher typically picks up pets. Later in the game, this can also possibly happen with an orlan baby that's wanted for a ritual sacrifice, although almost everybody comments on just what a ridiculous and simply terrible idea that is. Even the ending slides see fit to point out the absurdity of such an act.
  • In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Gym Leader Opal does this to Bede after seeing the amount of pink he's wearing (to his distress).
  • Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale: Charme mentions wanting to do this with Recette, though how serious she was may depend on how much one believes her booze was affecting her.
  • Touhou Project:
    • Yukari is said to spirit away people whom she takes a fancy to. This includes taking home people from outside Gensoukyou. This is somewhat deconstructed, however, as it's very strongly implied that she only keeps those people around until she gets bored of them. At that point, she either kills and eats them or drops them in Gensokyo, where humans from the outside world tend to have a very short life expectancy.
    • In Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream, Yumemi decided she wanted to take home one of the magical denizens of Gensoukyou, For Science!
    • After spending most of Undefined Fantastic Object geeking out at the prospect of meeting an alien Sanae refuses to believe Nue is a youkai, and after she defeats her drags her off to take pictures with her.
    • In the spinoff manga Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, the Moon princess Watatsuki no Toyohime repeatedly tries to take home one of the Earth rabbits she finds while visiting Eientei.
  • In Warframe, A large-scale example happens to the same group twice: a group of children, the only survivors of the Zariman Ten-Zero incident (the first attempt to travel through the Void), were "taken home" first by Margulis, an Orokin woman who cared for them and loved them. Years later, after Margulis' death, the same children were adopted by the Lotus because she could not have children of her own, even though it was a blatent act of rebellion that left her an outcast from her own community and put her at odds with her controlling father. Made especially cute by the fact that the Lotus deliberately takes on Margulis's mannerism to make the children feel more comfortable with her.
  • In the Ork campaign of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Retribution, Mistah Nailbrain decides to take "Daisy" home. Daisy is a custom-built battlewagon belonging to another Ork Warboss, and the Kaptin makes Nailbrain promise to keep Daisy fueled and loaded and take her out for ruckuses.
  • One of the potentinal Multiple Endings for Whispers of a Machine. At the end of it all, Vera has saved Karl and Katarina's infant son, but Karl has been murdered, and Katarina is likely to serve several years in prison for her involvement with a infamous terrorist organisation, so the latter gives up any claim to the child and instead begs Vera to make sure that he gets a proper life. Vera can then choose to put the child up for adoption, or promise Katarina that she will look after him herself.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • In the Homestar Runner short "Where's The Cheat?", Marzipan falls in love with a sandwich, of all things, in this way. She even names it "Homestar Jr.", much to Homestar's annoyance.
  • Puffin Forest: The players in Ben's games have been shown in several videos to have a tendency to collect a ton of pets and followers during their adventures due to wanting to take any monster or NPC that they take a liking to with them. In some cases they have outright kidnapped NPCs that they decided they liked.
  • Kindarspirit does this to Kirbopher in TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise and the series it was based on, TV Tome Adventures.
    Kindarspirit: YOU are just the CUUUUUTEST thing I've ever seen!
  • In the Zany To The Max episode "The Time Travel Contest", the Warners go to the year 802,701, into the world of The Time Machine to enter a contest. They have to help the Time Traveler find Weena. If they win, they will be able to take Weena home with them. (See Literature above.) Homestripe Runner, a Homestar Runner fan character (and Author Avatar) by the same author, wins instead.

    Webcomics 
  • These two Batman Retold strips.
  • Lampshaded by Jason Todd in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, joking that Bruce adopts kids so often that it's not so much a matter of if he'll adopt another so much as when. Considering how the series starts with Duke Thomas (Batman's newest adopted child) moving in, Jason's got a point...
  • Cyanide and Happiness has a disturbing take on this trope in this strip (albeit without bothering to declare the intention).
  • The kids in Far to the North try this... on a fully grown dragon. When he wakes, the dragon decides it's an excellent idea and attempts to take one of them to be his pet instead. Kelu objects.
  • A Girl and Her Fed had The Girl say this about one of the henchmen. She was shot down by The Fed; after all, villains are such a big responsibility.
  • Sasha had this reaction to King and Bailey's puppies in Housepets!. Unfortunately, King was so uncomfortable about how much affection she was showing him that he completely misunderstood the phrase "I want your puppies".
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: When an unleashed giant monster turns out to be cute and harmless, Molly names him Snookums and wants to keep him as a pet. Conveniently, he ends up shrinking to the size of a basketball by the end of the storyline.
  • In Keychain of Creation, Marena was inspired to bring Secret along with the group after she attempted to say her full Abyssal title... and fainted after seventy words.
    Marena: Aw, but she's so cute. Let's keep her.
  • In The Lounge, for a while it was a running gag for people to see the very petite Jamie MacKenzie and equally short (but teenage) Max Espinoza and ask how much they cost. Usually when they were wearing a cute hat or costume.
  • In Milk And Mocha, the title characters encounter Matcha the tiny dinosaur abandoned in a park, in a cardboard box, and after a slight misunderstanding, Milk took him home and the couple adopted him. Given the sudden rainstorm that ensued shortly before he was adopted, that dinosaur hit the jackpot.
  • The Touhou Project fan webcomic Mini Mari! has Flandre try to do this to Marisa. Unlike common depictions of Flandre being lonely and desperate for a friend from centuries of imprisonment, here she just finds Marisa's reduction to Fun Size absolutely adorable.
  • Monsters Can Be Heroes Too!: Coal's first assignment as an adventurer is go out and kill a slime. She ends up bringing a slime named Lime back with her because Lime is cute, completely forgetting the mission.
  • Pixie and Brutus: Accidentally invoked by Pixie. After an eagle kidnaps her, she keeps gushing about how pretty it is. Initially, the eagle resists, thinking she's trying to sweet-talk it, but upon realizing that Pixie really has no idea of the eagle's plans, it changes its mind and decides on adoption.
  • Roommates:
    • Jareth takes an Off the Wagon James home with him, in this strip. It happens more due to The Woobie effect, but with Jareth being a fey creature, it's still on the table that he thought it was adorable.
    • And a perfectly straight example happened when Sarah found Misto...she gave him away later, though.
  • Scandinavia and the World has this from Canada and Denmark with cute puppie "Hans" — standing in for the territorial dispute over Hans Island, close to Greenland.
  • Sequential Art has a reciprocal example: while shopping for Christmas, Scarlet (a squirrel girl) gets the attention of a little girl fascinated by her fluffy tail, and they BOTH want to take the other one home.

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • SMPLive: Connor is immediately enamored with Gold's cute pet parrot, Rye, and he and Schlatt decide they're going to kidnap it for themselves.
  • This is the whole basis behind the Trooper Mom series. Inspired by episode 8 of The Mandalorian, where one of the scout troopers kidnapping Grogu (a.k.a. Baby Yoda), instead of punching him as in canon, decides to adopt the Child because he's just so cute.
  • Ultra Fast Pony, "The Pet Games": After the tortoise rescues her from an avalanche, Rainbow Dash declares that she's adopting him. Even though he isn't actually up for adoption.
  • YouTube:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: "And I shall call you Mr. Tweetums! For it is very evil!" And in a later episode: "Fool! There is no one who I would want to remember~... Mr. Tweetums! Nooo!!! You made me forget my very best friend"...

    Western Animation 
  • Dopey from The 7D keeps bringing animals home, so the others warn him not to do so any more. But then he finds a baby elephant, and he can't help himself, so he disguises it as another dwarf. The others are completely fooled.
  • Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, in the episode The Jiggler, Finn and Jake find a creature that dances along to the song that Finn was singing and the two take it back to their tree house to party with.
    • Funnily enough, this is exactly how Finn ended up becoming Jake's brother. As shown in Memories of Boom-Boom Mountain, baby!Finn (after his father accidentally sent him away from the human islands while trying to protect him from Hiders) ended up all alone in Ooo when Joshua and Margaret found him and decided to take him home.
  • The Boondocks does this with Riley of all people being kidnapped by one of Grandpa's blind dates because he is just so cute. Huey and Grandad have to go save him.
  • Generator Rex: One episode has Breach kidnap Rex to put in her dollhouse while referring to Rex as her "new favorite" and "shiny thing."
  • A rather odd example in Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures. Villain Jeremiah Surd and his minions have hijacked Air Force One and they plan to kill everybody in it with a deadly nerve gas. Our heroes Jonny, Jessie. and Hadji get themselves captured while trying to rescue the President. Bandit (Jonny's pet dog) is also there. When Lorenzo, one of Surd's minions (who is usually very competent in his ruthlessness, except for being rather Book Dumb) points Bandit's presence out to Surd, the boss tells him to "throw him in, too." And Lorenzo goes: "But he's so cute! Can I keep him?" Surd, predictably, says no.
  • In Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness this was Po's inital reaction to Peng, before Green-Eyed Monster set in.
    Po: Oh please, please can we keep him? Can we keep him pleeeeease? He's even pottery trained!
  • Looney Tunes: The Abominable Snowman. "Oh, boy! A bunny rabbit! Just what I always wanted! I will name him George, and I will hug him and squeeze him and pet him and pat him..."
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Sweet and Smoky", Fluttershy is so utterly taken by the baby dragons' cuteness, by the end of the episode she grabs an armful of them while cooing "I'll take them all!"
  • An episode of The Powerpuff Girls has Bubbles bringing home animals she felt sorry for. This culminates with her trying to hide a baby whale from the Professor.
  • In South Park, Paris Hilton offers to buy Butters for $250 million for this reason. His parents accept, although Butters isn't too happy with the arrangement. Well, that and she thought Butters was an animal.
  • In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Jellyfish Jam", the jellyfish follows SpongeBob home, and SpongeBob at first doesn't want to take him home, but he relents easily.
  • Superman: The Animated Series: When the infant Kal-El landed on Earth, he was found by John and Martha Kent. Martha saw the baby and immediately wanted to take him in. John was hesitant at first to simply take a baby from a space ship, but the baby won him over after a minute. They named him Clark, and the rest is history.
  • In the Teen Titans Season 2 episode "Date with Destiny", Beast Boy makes mention that Killer Moth's mutant drones are cute enough to keep as pets (in the larval stage). Despite Raven's warning, he manages to hide Silkie up until Season 3's "Can I Keep Him?"
  • Tex Avery did it first in the MGM Cartoons. "Hello George! Glad to know ya, George! You're my new lit-tle friend, George! My new lit-tle friend. What I'm gonna do is to pet ya and play with ya, George!" (crunching of bones in a hug)
  • Elmyra of Tiny Toon Adventures has no problem with snatching random creatures (in a world of Funny Animals) and declaring them her pets. Compounding matters, she's also a negligent owner whose pets invariably die. In many ways she's more sinister than her mentor, Elmer Fudd, who would simply shoot at them.

    Real Life 
  • The reason inter-species adoptions are possible — e.g. a dog with puppies adopting a baby bunny it might have normally had for breakfast, a she-wolf adopting a human infant, etc. More specifically, facial features with certain proportions (huge eyes, tiny nose, tiny mouth, round head) really hit an onlooker's parental instincts, and happen to be pretty much universal among mammals, so that sometimes, under the right circumstances, the instinct to take it home and care for it overweighs the instinct to snack on it.
  • It can happen within a species too — if a baby is orphaned or otherwise separated from a parent, an adult will sometimes insert themselves as a surrogate parent. Nursing mother cats, for instance, will sometimes nurse orphaned or abandoned kittens, sometimes even going out of their way to "pick up" the kittens and take them to join her own kittens.
  • Outside of mammals, there is an adorable story of a snake taking his would-be-food in as a friend. A snake in a Japanese zoo wasn't eating after being added to their exhibit. They thought maybe it wanted something more... lively. One of the caretakers figured that the snake may have caught on with their trick, since normally they use warm meat to trick the snake's senses into thinking it's still alive and snakes won't eat dead things unless they have to. They placed a hamster in the enclosure with him and... they started cuddling. Turns out the snake was stressed from the trip and started eating again, with the hamster as a companion.
  • Many a puppy has gotten their home because of this trope. People might start out with the intention of just having a look but then a puppy jumps up to say hello, climbs into their lap, or just gazes at them with those big brown eyes and suddenly the puppy coming home with them is a foregone conclusion. Also occurs with older dogs, especially ones that qualify as woobies.
  • Cats are the masters of getting humans to do this. So much so that, statistically, more than half of cat owners got their pet after finding and adopting a stray.
  • While good for puppies, this trope is bad for baby animals of species where it is normal for the mother to hide her young and only return occasionally, like hares, and to a lesser extent, seals or deer. Humans may be tempted to take the baby animal home, and in many cases will not be able to properly care for it.
  • According to convention reports, the creepier members of Fan Dumb have a habit of asking Doug Walker if they can "keep" him. As one might expect, he doesn't enjoy this. Of course, given the phrasing, this could just as easily be a creepy and irritating, if ultimately harmless, reference to Casper, which featured the same line, and which The Critic found creepy.
  • One of Masi Oka's fans expressed her wish to take him home and care for him like a pet. He found out, and does not object to the idea.
  • A peculiar version of this was employed by Khutulun, a granddaughter of Genghis Khan and Tomboy Princess exemplar, who became known not just for her wrestling skills (at which she was said to be unbeatable) but also for her habit of fighting alongside her father in campaigns and at certain points running straight up to the enemy lines, picking up a random soldier and carrying him bodily back to her father. Presumably their enemies were too stunned to react.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Omochikaeri, Im Taking Him Home With Me

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