January 30th, 2009 
Seafoodpuncher It’s amazing how a thick layer of fat transforms the most hideous, gangly animal into something you can’t resist hugging. Plump hippos, wrinkled elephants, morbidly obese pugs, and waddling penguins are examples of animals that are all incredibly popular. This is quite possibly because of their bulbous bodies.
Fat seems to have a calming effect on the being it envelops. You may not know it, but the animal pictured above is a Chihuahua. Chihuahuas are crazed, maniacal little beasts and this one was no exception. He was born an insolent puppy who bit anything that walked by. But as the little guy grew to look more like a fuzzy watermelon with a grape for a head (thanks to a carefully formulated diet), he became too lazy to do anything but roll towards the food dish, and lie there wheezing until it was filled. What a good little boy.
The cat down there doesn’t seem to have such a bad life, either. His expression is that of pure joy. Not only that, but it’s claws probably don’t extend out far enough to escape the fat that encapsulates them, so the owner never has to worry about getting scratched. A cat this fat though, is too placid to scratch anything anyway. For a great video on how to overfeed your pet properly click HERE. (Ignore the message at the end)
On the other hand, skinny, decrepit animals-like writhing snakes, sick hyenas or spindly legged insects, leave much to be desired. It is no surprise that evil characters in Disney cartoons bare more resemblance to a walking skeleton than anything else. Nobody is going to trust a person with eyes sunk deep into a skinny face. This is even truer when the person also has sharp cheekbones that poke out of the leathery skin stretched over their faces.
One animal in particular, the Aye-Aye, has been associated with bad luck for decades, mainly because of its long and bony finger. This finger is used for nothing more than plucking unsuspecting, fat, little grubs (also cute) out of trees, but people think it’s a symbol of death. If the aye-aye had been blessed with a big, stumpy finger instead, rest assured that it would be associated with good luck and prosperity instead of doom.
Fat isn’t just for looks either: Ducks float around on their fat chests while jiggling seals are protected from the elements thanks to their padded, buttery hides. Puffer-fish are definitely more appealing after force-feeding themselves water to turn into big spiky balls.
The question is why do we ‘oooh’ and ‘awww’ at fat animals, when we scowl at the sweaty, wheezing, human chubsters who we are forced to make a detour around on the sidewalk?
The concept that fat=cute mainly works for cartoons and animals, but there still are cultures that claim the fatter the woman, the sexier and more comfortable she is…not unlike your favorite couch (more on that in another post).
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Few people knew that the sharp spiral horns carefully placed in shop windows were actually narwhal tusks shipped over from the Arctic, and that the lumbering, hairy unicorns described by Marco Polo were really just rhinos. 
I was lying in bed wondering how anyone could possibly fall asleep in the stifling heat. And then I heard it…
Living in the Middle East, I didn’t have a lot of English books to choose from as a kid, and for some reason or another I ended up with titles like “Weird Crap You Are Better Off Not Reading About”, “True Horror Stories”, “Haunted Houses”, “Encounters with the Paranormal” and “Top 100 unsolved mysteries”. Maybe it was the store owner’s way of punishing me for reading in English, but I bought the books anyway. Needless to say, the books I waddled out of the store with messed me up. They messed me up good.
I often cried in front of my father and he would just look away, disgusted at the sight of a bawling kid.
