So ugly they're cute... Part 7

My final installment is my favorite. This picture, in fact, is what inspired the whole series:

These two (the other is a kangaroo, obvs) are being reared together in Australia in a simulated pouch since both were abandoned before they were ready to be on their own. Sad, but also? Adorable. They were placed together so that they could find comfort in each other’s warmth and heartbeat in a way that they would normally get from their mothers. It seems that they’ve hit it off quite well.

I were one to write captions, I would follow the above photo with the next one and create some false narrative about how the wombat, Peggy, is pushing Anzac, the kangaroo, bashfully away after all the smoochy attention. But I am not one to write captions. I just infer them.

The Daily Mail article that covered this called Peggy boisterous and cheeky. That’s not an especially common term in American English, but using my BBC America-earned translation skills, I can tell you it’s somewhere between clever, sassy, and mischievous. I’ll buy that. 

They meet almost all my ugdorable criteria (I think I made this word up, but I want it to stick. Use it on all the babies you find until it does, readers!). They’ve got the wrinkly hairless thing, the bug-eyed thing, the co-dependent thing, and the (appearance of a) sweet disposition. Their prominent chompers give them an always-smiling mouth shape, don’t you think? And like all humans, I like to pretend that animals smile rather than just pant and gasp a lot.

Those pink flabby wrinkles really get me. I could happily be a wombat-breeder or something. Is that a job? (Answer: no.)

If you’re not familiar with the wombat, what with them being Australian and very far away and all, here’s what they grow up into. They remind me of rabbits.

I have issues with the Daily Mail, but I don’t mind them so much when they source images and stories like Peggy and Anzac. The rest of the images are courtesy of Zooborns, a page I never mind sharing.