'Happiness is a warm puppy': Animal laughs and joys for a happy brain this week (June 5, 2026)

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Jun 5, 2026 10:45 AM EDT

Have you ever pet a cow?

Ever since humans developed hands, they have wanted to pet. Pet their loved ones, pet themselves, and, of course, pet cute little animals. In fact, I'd argue that cute little animals are the ones we want to pet the most. Why is that? What is the evolutionary science behind that? I don't know, I'm not a scientist. However, I am an expert at petting animals and finding the silliest memes of animals I have pet before. And right now, the internet is telling me that "petted" is the proper way to say "to pet" in the past tense, but that sounds weird to me. So I'm sticking with pet. Because, let's be honest, physically I might be typing away in the office at work, but mentally I'm petting that cow I met one time, or I'm petting that little puppy that came up to me at the park. So, to me, it is always in the present tense. I pet, I am petting, there is no past tense, because in my mind, I am always petting some cute little animal.

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Let me tell you about this time I pet a cow. I feel like maybe I have already written about this once before… But I don't care, it was the best time ever.
So, here I am, barbecue sauce on my… Wait, got lost in an old stim. So there I was, early twenties, never had pet a cow before. It was all I ever wanted to do. I think they are SO cute, no matter the size. Small, huge, fluffy, coarse, whatever. They are adorable. One day, my time to shine came. I was in Vermont with some friends (lol, of course, Vermont) and one of my friends knew this old lady who lived alone on a farm around there. They were family friends and suggested we go to say hi. I never pass up a chance to meet farm animals, so of course I said let's go! So we went, and while we were there feeding the chickens, I voiced how I so badly wanted to pet a cow. She was happy to hear that, because as it turned out, she had a HUGE highland cow who LOVED to be pet, but since they were so big and scary, most people avoided them.
She warned me that she had to keep the bottom half of the door closed, because if not, they would try to sit in my lap and accidentally crush me cause they thought they were a lap dog. So she opened the top half of the door, and here comes this GIANT cow, straight towards me. They wiggled their huge head through the door, and I started scratching them under the chin. Oh man, did they love that, and so did I! I didn't wanna leave. 10/10 great experience, highly recommend.
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Anyways, hope you enjoyed my cow petting story and these adorable animal memes! It's been a great day sharing them with you. Stay whimsical, besties!