I pray to one day become a marmot for real. (Photo courtesy of Caters News.)

Marmots are not known for being particularly friendly. This famous scene in The Big Lebowski demonstrates quickly and comprehensively what humans can generally expect from marmots, i.e. they look nice and then they will fuck your shit up in a bathtub. But this little boy, Matteo Walch, is basically the Marmot Whisperer. He visits the Austrian Alps every year, and the marmots come out and hang out with him and have picnics with him and discuss the matters of the day.

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OMG, I touched him! I’m never washing this paw again. (Photo courtesy of Caters News.)

Basically the way the marmots act you’d think the kid was the second coming of the Marmot Christ — or just a really big and charming marmot, which, well, his hair is sort of marmot-brown.