Image: Toronto Zoo

Toronto Zoo welcomed this precious female polar bear cub on November 11, 2015 when Aurora, one of the zoo's two adult female polar bears, gave birth to two cubs. Unfortunately, the sibling of this cub did not survive his first 24 hours. The surviving cub was immediately moved to the intensive care unit of the facility to give her the best care possible. Though the staff is taking things day by day in terms of her health, it appears she's doing well thus far. 

Due to the disappearing sea ice, experts estimate that there are only 20,000-25,000 polar bears in existence. Scientists predict the worst case scenario being the loss of two-thirds of the polar bear population by the year 2050. The species is classified as "Vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List.

See additional pictures and a video of Toronto Zoo's polar bear cub at Zooborns. 

YouTube Link

This footage, shot by the owner of Cole and Marmalade, is of San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Nursery. There, orphaned kittens are given around-the-clock care by an attentive staff. The nursery was established in 2008, and provided a desperately needed refuge for these animals, who otherwise would have been subject to euthanasia. 

(Photo: Bark'N'Borrow)

I've been saying for about 20 years that there's certain to be a market for a dog rental service. After all, dogs are awesome, but not everyone is in a position to get a dog. Do you like spending time with dogs? Would you be willing to pay for it?

And that's where the kibble starts pouring in.

That hasn't happened yet, but we're getting close. Bark'N'Borrow is a new app-based business that lets people spend time with dogs by borrowing them. Maya Kosoff of Business Insider signed up and wrote about her experience.

After exchanging a set of messages and emails with his owner, I met up with Charles in a park near my apartment. I was a little nervous — I wasn't really sure what to expect at a dog meet-up. Charles, his owner, and I went for a walk together and it was surprisingly fun. But don't feel like you're limited to meeting up with a dog and its owner — once you establish a level of comfort and trust with a dog owner, you can actually borrow their dog for an overnight or for a few hours. It's up to the two of you. It might not be a service for everyone, but it's essentially the sharing economy ... for dogs. If you can't have a dog yourself for whatever reason and want to feel like you do, Bark'N'Borrow is probably the most convenient way to do it.

-via Marginal Revolution

YouTube Link

In the cat version of "a man walks into a bar..." this pretty kitty wandered into an unidentified pet store. The employees later found him, gettin' crazy with the catnip toys. Eventually, his owner was called to give his pet the feline version of a SafeRide. We all need a bit of an escape from time to time, don't we kitty? Via Arbroath
 

YouTube Link

VTM News in Belgium caught this funny scene. The baby elephant decided to take a nap while he was still standing upright. He promptly went for a tumble.

(Video Link)

A heartwarming note comes immediately after the baby's fall: all of the grown-ups rush over to make sure that he's okay.

-via Tastefully Offensive

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the top grossing movie of all time in the U.S. and Canada. Girls is a popular HBO show going into its sixth season. Adam Driver happens to star in both. He also made his mark in Inside Llewyn Davis, J. Edgar, and a number of indies. He's essentially an "It Boy" of the moment. 

Tell me this cat at @TheMCSPCA doesn't look like Adam Driver. pic.twitter.com/OmtGnOWxyG

— Marci Robin (@MarciRobin) January 16, 2016

But let me introduce you to one sweet soul who couldn't care less: Adam Driver Cat. There he hangs, adorably big-eared and intense, at the Monmouth County SPCA, waiting to be adopted. He doesn't care about your lightsabers or Chewie action figures. He wants a forever home. Hopefully, looking like a movie star will help him in this endeavor.

Via Reddit | Image: Rodney Wright via Imgur, batty77

Snoop Dogg is not so much a tree hugger as he is a guy who smokes trees, but that doesn't mean he's isn't a friend to his fellow animals.

As his name implies Mr. Dogg is a huge fan of animals, and his encyclopedic knowledge of all creatures great and small landed him the animal lover gig of a lifetime- narrator for the nature documentary series Planet Earth.

(YouTube Link)

BBC's Planet Earth series is normally narrated by David Attenborough, but people thought his narration left the series lacking any sort of street cred, so they brought in the Dee Oh Double Gee to make us howl with laughter!

(YouTube Link)

-Via Esquire

YouTube Link

In this video (filed under "clips that make my dogs go crazy"), Plato the adorable Airedale terrier is seriously bugged by a chipmunk toy that records his barking and immediately plays it back to him. In fact, it appears as if Plato's not quite convinced this confusing critter is a toy, since he gently bats it around but doesn't bite or otherwise try to destroy it. I don't blame you, Plato. This is a question for the ages. Via Arbroath

What we humans refer to as parkour, animals see simply as a convenient way to get around town fast, and yet some animals have clearly been around town a bit more than others.

And when those freerunning furballs go the extra mile to impress their humans, it makes for some mighty fun-to-watch footage, like this video of Jim the Pit Bull doing his thing on the mean streets.

(YouTube Link)

Jim the Pit Bull is on a mission to prove that bark-our is even more impressive to watch than parkour, and his moves are so slick the squirrels are taking notes!

-Via MSN

As we’ve seen before, Istanbul is home to a large number of stray cats. City residents love them and feed them, but don’t seem too keen on adopting and/or spaying them. And it’s now winter. So Mustafa Efe, the Imam at the Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi Mosque, has opened the facility’s doors to cats that need shelter from the cold. You can see plenty of pictures at Buzzfeed, and at Mustafa Efe’s Facebook page. The text is in Turkish, but the language of cat pictures is universal. Also check out a video of a mother cat bringing her kittens into the mosque.   

(Image credit: Mustafa Efe)

Except for Neatorama, of course, because it has readers that are remarkably intelligent, kind, and good-looking. Otherwise, I'll spend the rest of my day at Cat Cosplay, which dresses up cats in highly realistic costumes of pop culture characters, such as Spock from Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Marty McFly.

Timo the cat is an internet celebrity, what with his cat hammock, masterful Christmas tree decorating style, and adorable yawning.

But he hasn't forgotten the people who loved him before he was famous. For 3 years, his best friend has been a koi. Oh, he's polite to all of the koi in the pond. But the grey one always gets special attention.

(Video Link)

-via Gifsboom

When your cat gets a few Instagram features and all of the sudden thinks he's @MileyCyrus... #selfiecat #GoPro

A photo posted by @yoremahm on Jan 2, 2016 at 4:13am PST

Cats each have their own quirks, habits, and hobbies. Manny is obsessed with the GoPro camera. He’s reached out and batted the camera so many times that he’s learned to trip the shutter and take selfies! The best are posted by his human, who goes by yoremahm on Instagram. Manny even manages to take pictures of himself with the numerous family dogs.

#selfiecat #GoPro

A photo posted by @yoremahm on Dec 23, 2015 at 8:45am PST

And he’s apparently working on his facial expressions. Here he is trying to look seductive.

when cats do #duckface #selfiecat #gopro

A photo posted by @yoremahm on Dec 11, 2015 at 6:38am PST

And even art shots! I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with an art exhibit in a gallery somewhere.

#selfiecat #gopro #tongueouttuesday

A photo posted by @yoremahm on Jan 5, 2016 at 12:44pm PST

See more of Manny’s selfies at Instagram, along with pictures of his large animal family. -via Uproxx

(Video Link)

Jacqueline Sloan Ziegler's daughter, Kailyn, loves to do cartwheels. And she's good at them, too! Oakland the Pit Bull would like to get into the action, but he can't get the hang of the movement. Keep practicing, Oakland (warning: auto-start video).

-via Tastefully Offensive

(Photo: Caromont Farm)

Caromont Farm in Alebemarle County, Virginia is a dairy. It raises goats and uses their milk to make cheese.

The staff expects that about 90 kids will be born in February. They’ll need round-the-clock care for a while, with snuggles and bottle feedings every 4 hours. The baby goats will have lots of hay, little sweaters, and heaters. But they’ll still need some tender loving care that only humans can provide.

So the farm is asking for volunteers to take 4-hour snuggle shifts. You can find the sign-up list here.

-via Dave Barry