Our favorite animals of 2011, baby and otherwise

News happened this year in Atlanta. Lots of it (and, don’t worry, those posts are coming). But amid the scandals, robberies, state-sanctioned killings and really, really ugly license plates that were forever bombarding our collective digital consciousness, every now and then there were small, furry reminders that things aren’t exclusively awful (although, one of the items on this list just serves to reinforce that things are completely awful, all the time — still furry, though).

Here are our picks for the best animalés of 2011 ...

Norman the Scooter Dog

• http://clatl.com/atlanta/ImageArchives?by=1223504
• Norman was really goin’ places in ‘11

Norman, the scooter-riding genius dog from Canton, who rolled over and into our hearts — and then all the way to Letterman! — may or may not actually be a hirsute 8-year-old with terrible breath. If that ends up being the case, I’m available to homeschool him from now until forever, Mr. and Mrs. Norman’s parents.

Gwynedd Lily the Giraffe

• http://clatl.com/atlanta/ImageArchives?by=1223504
• A sock puppet filled with actual bones and face things

Besides being so ridiculous looking it became a source of anger and frustration for basically everyone in Atlanta (or just me, maybe), the baby giraffe born at Zoo Atlanta in July also became a source of controversy when the right to name her was sold on Groupon to some rando named Tami Honeycutt who refused to name the giraffe Gwynedd, even though I asked very, very nicely. In the end, the living, breathing sock puppet was named Lily and finally began to grow into her idiot loose neckskin.