If You’re Having a Lousy Week, This Just Might Cheer You Up
I am not having the greatest week and I'm not sure why. It seems I've been restless, irritable and discontent since Monday, and when I get into my funk, it's kind of hard to not get distracted and discouraged. Ah, but now, take a look at this:
That big sweetie is called a quokka.
A quokka is a marsupial native to Western Australia. A quokka, also known as the short-tailed scrub wallaby, is a social plant-eater that hangs out in clans, munches on swamp peppermint and other greens, stores fat in its tail for lean times, digs tunnels through vegetation for napping and hiding, and hops like a kangaroo. They are mainly active at night, sleeping most of the day. The quokka is about the size of your basic household cat.
In the mid-2010s, quokkas earned a reputation on the internet as "the world's happiest animals" and symbols of positivity due to their beaming smiles.
Many photos of smiling quokkas have since gone viral and the "quokka selfie' has become a popular social media trend with celebrities such as Roger Federer, Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth all participating.
The surging popularity of smiling quokkas reached such a peak, the fact-checking website Snopes confirmed in March 2020 that the animal exists, saying it had received questions from readers who thought it "was simply too cute to be real."