I will hug him and squeeze him!

Inbred into our psyches is this thing called "parental instinct". It's especially prominate in the females of our race, resulting in strange cries such as "OOOooooOOOOoooaw! Whadda cute bay-bee!" The older the female, the quicker they dissolve into a puddle of baby-talk and kissy faces. Admittedly, men do it too, but only when they think people aren't looking. Nature protects its young with a cuteness factor so high that it threatens to melt the human ability to think logically.

The parental instinct is a dangerous thing, because it's not always in the interest of self-preservation. This is something I know from personal experience with a very cute, but destructive fox-hound. Many a teenager who's volunteered to babysit has suddenly found themself cowering behind a barricade and praying that the parents come home soon.

Okay, so not all babysitting gigs are that truamatic and if you actually choose a pet more suited for your lifestyle then it's acutally a rewarding experience. (I just made the mistake of getting a dog that can run five hours day five days straight.) However, if you just want a cuteness fix, here are a few websites that can oblige:

• The well-known "I Can Has Cheezburger"
• A pet simulation game called SuperPoke! Pets--and you can post it to your Facebook or MySpace!
• A very celver wecomic called Catena
• And last of all, for those of your who don't believe in cuteness, I have this video.