Just Another Break In The Wall

This pair of anti-Bedward examples is a little strange. See, Cameron and Zabu aren't human. They also aren't aliens, monsters, or any other type of fictional sapient creature. They're big cats. This is Cameron & Zabu:

https://bigcatrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LionTigerLigerTalk-300x166.png

(Cameron is the lion, Zabu is the tiger)

Cameron and Zabu are a pair of residents at the Florida sanctuary Big Cat Rescue. They were raised together at a roadside zoo (and not treated too well there), presumably in order to breed ligers. BCR thinks that this was unsuccessful before they were rescued, and after their rescue they were fixed because BCR is a non-breeding sanctuary.

Cameron and Zabu are incredibly different from Edward and Bella, even aside from being cats. But their romance does bear a few superficial similarities to Bedward (They even have their own ship name- Cambu), which serves very well to point out how this fuzzy, loving pair does it so much better.

Cameron and Zabu, like Edward and Bella, are different species who don't normally fall in love- though with lions and tigers this is mostly because their territory in the wild does not overlap. Both couples have beaten the odds to get their happy ending with each other.

Thing is, Edward and Bella tell their romance. Cam and Zabu live it. They live in the same enclosure, and spend much of their time play-hunting each other, cuddling with each other, and grooming each other (big cats love to wash themselves just as much as domestic cats). About the only thing Cameron won't do with Zabu is play in her pool (tigers love water, lions not so much). They have more honest affection with each other in one day than Edward and Bella have in the whole series.

Whenever they're separated (usually because one of them needs surgery and they have to be separated to allow for recuperation), the other is incredibly worried about them, and they get right back to cuddling and playing when the other returns. Big Cat Rescue has several medical videos of the pair (uncensored, so if you're going to look for them, be aware that they show graphic medical scenes), and in all of them you can tell that Cameron and Zabu miss each other whenever they're apart, and adore spending time with each other.

Individually, Cameron and Zabu have much nicer personalities than Edward and Bella, despite having the excuse of literally being wild animals. Cameron is very laid-back and friendly for a lion (though that still leaves a lot of room for crankiness), and Zabu is quite frankly your average Genki Girl in tiger form. She loves pestering him to play when he's trying to sleep, but if she doesn't get her way then she's fine with going swimming or play-stalking visitors. She isn't usually successful because she's white (and therefore obvious), but she remains happy, upbeat, adorable, and one of the nicest tigers the sanctuary has.

Cameron and Zabu: Because while lions may not lay down with lambs, they will sometimes do so with white tigers.

P.S. Cameron currently doesn't have a mane because he has been neutered, and a lion's mane is maintained by testosterone (since it's there to attract lionesses). Initially he was only given a vasectomy, but as the years went by he became very possessive of Zabu and Big Cat Rescue had to neuter him to curb his behavior. He lost his mane but kept his girlfriend- a good trade.

That gives me an idea- if neutering curbs stupid jealous male behavior, then why don't we castrate Christian Grey? It probably won't work with Edward because he's frozen at stupid teenager level no matter what appendages he has, but Christian's human.