WARNING: The following photo contains intense adorability. Observe at your own risk.

On the left, a tiny duiker, the stackable South African ungulate.

In the middle, a trained professional capable of withstanding high levels of cuteness.

On the right, an even tinier baby duiker. Ankle high. The neutron bomb of cute.

Once you regain consciousness, just remember: you were warned.

This picture (and others which are coming shortly) only exists because of the kindness of some nice folks at the Los Angeles Zoo who have recently taken a shine to this site’s weekly pudublogging. In fact, last weekend, the entire puduland braintrust was given a remarkable VIP tour of the whole place, complete with a well-informed docent explaining all sorts of magnificent things about which animal puts what unexpected thing in some unimaginable orifice for unanticipated reasons, making it all sound so utterly cool. I have rarely been so entertained and delighted.

This was an amazingly wonderful day. Many thanks to Suzanne, Nancy, and Joleen.

Incidentally, if you live in SoCal and haven’t been to the zoo lately, go. Take the kids. Want to help save the world? Teach young people to appreciate wildlife and the environment. Plus, it’s fun as heck.

The pudus are sort of in the back to the right. The nursery, where you’ll find baby whoknowswhats, is in the front to the right. The baby duiker is probably still there if you hurry.

PS — I should also add that I’ve had a fabulous run of fortune lately, and there are lots of other people I need to thank profusely — folks with the L.A. Dodgers, in NY publishing, and doing several varieties of Hollywood thingies. I’m traveling and visiting family at the moment, but there will be much gratitude here asap.