love that the scifi/fantasy trope of ridiculously adorable creature that’s actually a super dangerous predator is a real thing that exists in this world and it’s the desert sandcat
it’s one of the most brutally efficient predators on earth and it looks like it should be dressed up in a frilly little dress at a children’s tea party
Honestly i think the reason we have that trope is
1. On our planet there are a whole lot of animals that are vicious predators, and
2. There are a whole lot of animals that we, humans, find adorable, and
3. Those two large groups of animals overlap a whole lot, because the things we have the most tendency to find cute (large head, large forward-facing eyes, etc) are traits very common in predators, because
4. We are also vicious predators and are also, by our own standards, pretty cute.
