Cute!

Well, it's Monday again (said in my best Bill Murray voice) and we're at the grind, again.

It's another edition of Distractions from the Escalating Dumpster Fire That Is Our Time -- this time featuring a plethora of pretty piggies!

For this week's installment of cute animals that distract you from Every Bad Thing Happening in the World Right Now, we're going diving into the deep blue places of planet Earth in search of some adorable swimming creatures.

I'm back with another entry in the Guide to Animals You Didn't Realize Were So Cute, this time with a hard-shelled long-nosed submission that's sure to brighten your day.

You know the Mondays where you look at the to-do list (or worse, have it swirling in your head like your forgotten lunch's chowder) and want to immediately retreat under your blankets and decry the entire day?

On this most Monday of Mondays (thus far in 2025), I turn to content discovered in another dark period (the Pandemic).

If you've never heard of this week's featured cute animal, the rock hyrax, allow me to paint you a word picture -- imagine a cross between a loaf of bread and a groundhog, add adorable little fangs, and inflate the resulting animal's paws to comically round proportions.

Noblegarden starts this week in World of Warcraft, but rather than dwell on the years-long effort to collecting duck disguises, I suggest we go back to the roots of the in-game holiday.

Now, we know cats can be incredibly cute, and dogs can be incredibly cute, but generally when you put them together, things are decidedly not cute, right?

Believe it or not, the Metro Richmond Zoo's precious Poppy was merely the last arrival in a personality-packed lineup of newborn pygmy hippos in the last year.