Adorable Baby Otter Makes a Surprise Visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium

There are few things more adorable than otters – they’re like friendly, fluffy, aquatic kitty cats who float on their backs while holding hands. So when you see a newborn baby otter it’s so precious you can’t even function – and when it turns out the mama otter came from the wild and snuck into the safety of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to give birth, you’ve got a story that will turn all of Facebook into a puddle.

Aquarium officials told SFGate that they noticed the wild animal hanging around the aquarium’s protected lagoon. It was strange behavior for a healthy animal, so they were starting to wonder if she was sick – but then on Sunday morning they saw her again, with a tiny floofball of a baby sleeping on her belly.

Since then, images and clips of the mother and baby cuddling nose-to-nose in the water have been going all over social media. Even better, biologists are saying that the birth is a sign of sea otters rebounding to a healthy population in Monterey Bay after nearly being hunted to extinction. In the early 1800’s there were maybe 50 left in all of California.

Monterey Bay Aquarium will be posting updates about the mother and baby for as long as they stick around, so prepare to lose all productivity for the time being.