The Not-So-Uplifting Year in the Animal Kingdom

I can't count the number of animal stories that appeared in my timelines this year with comments like, "Everything is garbage, so here's this." There was the cat who was reunited with her family after the Camp Fire, in California, and the parrot who was adopted after getting kicked out of an animal shelter for swearing too saltily. Among the bears preparing for hibernation at Katmai National Park, a female named Beadnose became famous for being the most gloriously round. There was the baby raccoon who scaled a skyscraper in St. Paul, "Mission Impossible" style, stopping occasionally for naps in window ledges along the way. Stories from the animal world offer reliable moments of escapism--the ones we see in viral videos are usually cute, or tame, or strange and majestic, and glimpsed from a safe distance.