Very interesting article. I feel this pain very frequently.

I really like Adapters that have similar items. They should at least share some logic so that you will have only 1 list of items. When items share some semantics, it is easy to have a base class that represents that adapter.

But when you have cars next to ducks, it is a pain.

I have another solution to this. It is to have another separate Adapter which merges 2 adapters. When you get used to these merging adapters, it is pretty easy to implement.

You would have AnimalsAdapter and CarsAdapter. Then you can have another adapter that merges these two. That adapter can be named after whatever this crazy screen is doing.