Wait, what am I?

That's what this baby okapi is asking Life. "Am I like, a zebra? Or a weird horse? What about my striped leggings--does this mean I'm a rollergirl?" So many questions. And since I am totally getting a repetitive stress injury from typing all the time at my new job, I am just going to direct you to the "There's a New Okapi In Town" story at Zooborns.com. Thanks as always to my BFF, Sarah, for forwarding this my way!

Adorable dormice!

Dormice! They sound so cozy. So Wind in the Willows. And since I've just described the rock'n'roll rats of the previous entry as having that weird tiny animal speech pattern I imagine everything cute has, I am not even gonna delve into that. So here you go. Here's just a bunch of pictures of dormice, doing what they do best: being adorable. And here's a link in case you want to read about them. I love them so much. I just imagine them wearing little bonnets and calling each other "Mother" and "Papa" even though they're married to each other. And the Mother Dormouse is always baking pies and the Papa Dormouse is really forgetful but teaches the Dormouse children valuable life lessons.


(Pic credit: Wildlifetrust.org.uk)


(Daily Mail)


(The Guardian)


(Cheshire Wildlife Trust)

Look to your laurels, Bob Geldof, here come the real... Boomtown rats!

Yes, I totally lifted that headline and this picture direct from the Daily Mail. They were just too good to not reuse them. Apparently some people from Holland were inspired to teach their pet rats to "play" these itty-bitty instruments after seeing a widdle guitar in a shop window. (Because, as you already know, tiny creatures like rats speak with an adorable lisp and use cutesy words to describe things. They can't help it! They are just that inherently heartwarming.) These Dutch people are truly people after my own heart. Thanks to my friend Tony for finding this. Anything where animals rock out is a-ok in my book.

Read more!

Grammar monkeys on patrol!

Um, how did I miss this? How did THE WORLD MISS THIS??? Apparently, according to National Geographic, monkeys can understand grammar. I mean, sure, most people know about Koko, the sign language gorilla. But WOW. Read more HERE.
The article describes how "previous research in cotton-top tamarins had shown that the animals can understand basic grammar, for instance, identifying which words logically follow other words in a sentence." And now our scientist friends have demonstrated that tamarins can recognize suffixes and prefixes, and when they are used incorrectly. During the study, when a suffix was used out of order from what the monkeys had been previously hearing, they turned dramatically towards the researchers. THEY WERE THAT UPSET!!!! What sticklers those little tree-swingin' guys are. This is so exciting! Now in my ideal future universe when we are record shopping alongside giant otters and hanging at poolside Vegas bars with giant salamanders, we can have book clubs with tiny punk rock-lookin' monkeys. DREAMLAND!

Baby bats continue to astound with their strangeness, heartwarmingness

As often happens, my best friend and frequent Cuteoverload.com reader Sarah has opened my eyes (and now yours!) to this adorable yawning baby bat! "Oh it's 11am! I can't believe I stayed up this late into the morning! I am so tiwed!" That is what he is saying. Because as you know by now, I'm sure, all baby animals have an adorable lisp.


(Picture from Northern Territory News in Australia.)