Haraway, Donna ‘s term for the mutually dependent---Haraway’s term is ‘obligatory’---relationship between human animals and certain kinds of non-human animals. Companion species differs from companion animals (such as guide dogs for the blind) in this crucial respect: it implies a two-way dependency. Haraway argues that neither human animals nor non-human animals pre-exist their relationship to one another. This is because the relationship is productive or co-constitutive. Haraway takes this line of thought back to the origin of both humans and dogs and argues that their development has to be seen as an instance of co-evolution. Neither species would be what it is today without the other. Humans are in a state of coexistence with countless microorganisms, Haraway argues, so ‘our’ sense of ‘self’ needs to be rethought (she describes this as a fourth Copernican turn, adding to three already enumerated by Freud, Anna) as composite of our ‘self’ with ‘others’. She borrows Lynn Margulis’s concept of sympoiesis to describe this process as a form of ‘making-with’ or ‘we’ creation, as opposed to autopoiesis, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela’s better-known term for ‘self’ creation. Haraway rejects the idea that the relationship between companion species is ‘touchy-feely’. It is, rather, multiform, unfinished, and consequential. She speculates that the relationship can be thought of in terms of love, providing it is understood that it is a form of love built on mutual trust, working together, accomplishment, and play, rather than passive conceptions of romantic love. Interestingly, it is important to Haraway that the companion species should not be considered a pet or be anthropomorphized in any way. This includes the idea of considering animals to be innocent, which she describes as an exterminationist viewpoint. Human animals and non-human animals are and remain irreducibly other in Haraway’s conception of them, an outlook she admits is theological in its formulation. This does not mean they cannot communicate; on the contrary, it means that their communication is the only ‘true’ kind of communication because it bridges an irreducible divide. She describes the interrelation between human animals and non-human animals in various ways, using a variety of borrowed terms, e.g. emergent ontology, ontological choreography, partial connections, and, perhaps most satisfyingly, a dance. Further Reading: D. Haraway Manifestly Haraway (2016). D. Haraway When Species Meet (2008).