Fish aren't known for showing affection. Most fish do not want to be touched by humans at all. But Bon Shaw has a Blood Parrot Cichlid that craves human interaction. That fish really loves being petted!

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This little guy just loves to watch me wherever I am in the room, he'll do anything to get my attention. And when I look at him he flares out his gills and dances from side to side just hoping that I'll come over to play. If I drop food in the aquarium he'll ignore it and hope to play. I have to walk away to get him to go find the food which has floated away by then. That said, in another tank I have a second Blood Parrot Cichlid that loves me but doesn't want to be touched. It's like having one dog and one cat. You just have to love the differences.

 -via Tastefully Offensive

Josephsen Hardwood Floor Company has a Facebook page on which they post the Employee of the Week every week. The "employee" is always a supervisor. They are the pets of the homes where they install floors. Above, you see Sophie, who made the list in April.

My dad takes pictures of the dogs at the houses he works on and posts them on his business' Facebook page as employee of the week pic.twitter.com/BrkYKdr1lT

— dill2ill (@_illdill_) August 1, 2017

There are plenty of dogs, and also cats, and once a donkey made the cut. -via Metafilter

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Most city slickers see cows as those critters you moo at while you're driving down the highway in cattle country, but anybody with farm experience knows a thing or two about cows.

And one thing you find out real fast- some cows act just like giant dogs, wanting to play, get pets and go on long walks. Some cows even have fur that looks similar to a dog's coat, like the ridiculously photogenic Scottish Highland cow above.

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They'll even curl up with you (or should I say around you) when they're feeling tuckered out, which seems like a pretty normal thing for a dog to do but strange for a cow. And speaking of strange- this herd seems to be sweet on that cute canine, and he's loving every minute of it!

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See 21 Reasons Why Cows Are Basically Just Really Big Dogs here

Stand-up comedian Emmett Montgomery talks about his angry, obese cat Walter, who he described as  "a stinky, beautiful monster" and "a bloated pillow with emotional problems." Walter was such an awful cat that his previous owner tricked Montgomery into adopting him. He tells us the story of the worst cat you can imagine. It begins with some NSFW language.  

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Walter helped Montgomery's career by providing a subject to hang jokes on, and gave him stress relief by sleeping on his beard. It's funny how the worst cat can worm its way into your heart.  -via Tastefully Offensive

We've talked about the sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica and while sloths may be native there, it's far from the only sloth sanctuary out there. In fact, there's also the Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center in Rainer, Oregon where you can get even more up close and personal with the sloths by booking a sloth sleepover. For $600 you can watch the nocturnal animals hang out and do their thing from 8 P.M. until 7:30 A.M. The experience might be a bit on the expensive side, but you're not only helping to support a rescue group, you're also becoming a member of a very exclusive club. That's because only ten people per day are allowed to meet the sloths at the sanctuary in order to ensure the creatures never feel stressed. It is worth noting that no matter what happens though, you will never be permitted to touch the animals -though I assume it's OK if they decide to touch you.

You can read more about the experience over at PetsLady

A big-eared feral kitten was brought to Vet Ranch in poor shape. He couldn't use his back legs! Dr. Matt Carriker suspected the paralysis was due to a cat bite that had grown into an infected abscess. He treated the infection and hoped for the best. They named the little guy Sunshine. This video contains minor surgery, and may be disturbing for the squeamish.     

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Over a few week's time, Sunshine began walking again, and is now ready to be adopted. And then there's this:

You'll find more rescue stories from Vet Ranch at their Facebook page. -via Laughing Squid 

The easiest way to improve a movie is to stick a cat in it. Filmmakers know this works, even in movies where a cat is not at all necessary. Everyone remembers Jones from Alien and Mr. Bigglesworth from Austin Powers, and then there are movies about cats, like The Aristocats and The Cat From Outer Space.

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There are also big cats, costumed cats, and cartoon cats in this supercut by Burger Fiction. They admit that there are many movies that didn't make the cut, and promise a volume two sometime in the future. -via Tastefully Offensive 

Dogs are a lot smarter and more compassionate than humans give them credit for being, and when they see one of their feral relatives in trouble they will often help out however they can.

Lara is an eight-month-old puppy rescued from the streets of Brazil by Suelen Shaumloeffel, and Suelen keeps finding new reasons to love little Lara more- like the time she offered to share her blanket with a homeless dog.

Lara didn't have much to offer the homeless dog who slept on the other side of her yard's fence but she did have her favorite blanket, which conveniently fit through the fence.

Suelen shared this story of canine compassion so others could learn from Lara:

‘I thought, “How beautiful that she did that for her friend”,’ Suelen tells The Dodo.

‘My best four-legged friend reminded me of something so important: generosity!

‘She is the nicest little dog I’ve ever met. We forget sometimes the difference we can make in someone’s life. She reminded me of this.’

-Via Metro

Zolthux has at least three cats and a sophisticated sound-activated burglar alarm system. What could possibly go wrong? We found out, because he also has security cameras.

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Just a few more sleepless nights and he'll learn to clean the table off before he goes to bed. -via Tastefully Offensive

In the newest episode of Simon's Cat Logic, we get some insight into the language of cats. No, not LOLspeak, that's an internet language. This is about cat communication, especially what they're trying to tell us humans.

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Cats don't normally meow in cat society, so their meows are an attempt to speak human language. It works for them most of the time, at least to get our attention. And as cat owners, we learn their body language. Hissing, growling, purring, chirping, and other sounds are used for both humans and other cats. Bonus: we get to see Simon Tofield recording cat meows for his cartoons. The new video is only about five minutes long. It's tagged with the Simon's Cat video Double Trouble.  -via Tastefully Offensive

Dog owners hope for the best when they hire a sitter, so if the dog seems to genuinely like their sitter that's usually a good sign since dogs don't hide their feelings about humans.

But if your dog straight up loves hanging out with their sitter then you might want to watch the two of them in action, because there's probably something adorable going on there.

Skylar the dog absolutely adores her sitter James Liakos, and James loves hanging with Skylar so much he filmed their adventures together, creating the incredibly sweet video "Cute Whippet Dog Story: Man's Best Friend".

James' clients had no idea what was going on, until James sent them the video...

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-Via PawMyGosh

This hamster trying to use a hamster wheel is a metaphor for the way life tends to throw a wrench in our plans. You're going along just fine, thinking you've finally figured something out, or have a skill down, and suddenly things go sideways and you don't even know how it happened.

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The real kicker is that you get laughed at when you are in the most vulnerable position. But we can be like this little hamster, and just pick ourselves up and try again! -via Digg

Young elephants are just like little kids in one key way- they like to throw tantrums when they're trying to get their way, hoping their parents will take pity on them and give in to their demands.

And pachyderm parents handle these tantrums the same way many human parents do- by ignoring the bratty child until they fall back in line again.

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According to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust this tantrum throwing behavior is pretty typical:

"Elephants also display many of the attributes of humans as well as some of the failings. They share with us a strong sense of family and death and they feel many of the same emotions. Each one is, of course, like us, a unique individual with its own unique personality.

They can be happy or sad, volatile or placid. They display envy, jealousy, throw tantrums and are fiercely competitive, and they can develop hang-ups which are reflected in behaviour."

-Via World of Animals

Cats ain't the easiest critters in the kingdom to draw, and yet their personalities and feline essence can be captured in a less than realistic drawing.

But one of the biggest problems with drawing cats is that they won't pose or sit still long enough to be used as a model, so if you're not a quick draw artist you have to catch them while they're sleeping.

This creates a new problem- cats often sleep in funny places and positions, so the drawings come out looking more like a caterpillar than a cat, which makes people think you don't know how to draw cats.

People will also judge your cat drawings if the feline subject is making a funny face, because cats never do funny things and they certainly don't make funny faces, not ever!

Heloisa created the Twitter account Poorly Drawn Cats (@poorlycatdraw) because she's always being judged for her cat drawings even though every one of them is a photorealistic masterpiece.

See When Your Teacher Keeps Saying You Can't Draw Cats, But Your Paintings Are Photorealistic here

Hyenas spend their days laughing at all the other critters in the savanna, and as usual those who laugh at the expense of others are crying on the inside.

But unlike the lions, whom they laugh at despite their royal status, a male hyena's life is way worse than a female's- because they're basically ostracized once they hit adolescence:

A life of hunting zebras and raising young on the savanna isn’t half bad for a female hyena. Sadly, the same can’t be said for their male counterparts. As MinuteEarth explains, things take a downturn for the males of the species once they hit adolescence. No female in their pack will mate with them, a behavior scientists believe evolved to avoid inbreeding, so they head off in search of a different group to join. After dealing with vicious hazing from their new clan, they file in at the bottom of the rank and wait for other males above them to die so that they can slowly gain status.

Even after rising through the hierarchy, the most a male hyena can aspire to is being second place to the lowest-ranking female. Thanks to their bulky build and aggressive behavior, female hyenas enjoy a dominant position that’s rare in the animal kingdom.

Looks like life got the last laugh Mr. Hyena! Here's that video by MinuteEarth to explain more:

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-Via Mental Floss