Thursday, April 14, 2011

Impossibly cute cheetah stealing the hearts of journalists everywhere!

photograph courtesy of Busch Gardens

Journalists aren't normally known for being sentimental slobs. Usually they're just known for being slobs.

But, journalists are known for being pretty good at resisting pitches from annoying public relations people.

But if you're a PR person at Busch Gardens in Tampa that just got a baby cheetah from a Jacksonville Zoo after its mother wasn't able to care for it...well, that's another story.

For the past few weeks, the folks at the theme park have been pumping out cute pics of the newborn cheetah just as fast as they can.

And Florida newspapers have been posting them on their websites as soon as they pop up in their inboxes.

"Busch Gardens' Baby Cheetah is So Cute We Literally May Have Died," Miami New Times cynic-in-residence Kyle Munzenrieder wrote a few weeks ago.

However, the folks at Busch Gardens, perhaps sensing that pictures of their cheetah, cute as it is, were wearing thin, upped the ante this week.

They doubled the cute factor by releasing pictures of their impossibly cute cheetah with an equally impossibly cute, 16-week old female yellow Labrador puppy.
"Well, reader, it's been nice knowing you. See you later, because you're about to die of cute overload.

"Busch Gardens Tampa Bay's famous fuzzy baby cheetah has a new best friend — a 16-week old female yellow Labrador puppy. The public now has a chance to name both adorable animals ("Snuggle Muffin" is out of the question, though)",
wrote giddy St. Petersburg Times staffer, Stephanie Hayes.
Other hard-bitten, tough-as-nails reporters are also being sucked in by the cute pics.

My friend Tamara, a wire service reporter who's covered the earthquake in Haiti, multiple murders in half a dozen Florida cities and last summer's Gulf oil spill, sent me a link to the cheetah/puppy pics this morning with this warning: "Sit down. You might not be able to handle the cuteness."

C'mon Tamara, you don't think I'm gonna fall for that, do you?


1 comment:

  1. Bill: Baby animals also happen to be pageview gold. Every single publication in the world knows that.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to comment on anything you read here.

All comments must first be approved. Spam and spam links will not be tolerated or approved.