Phew! What an afternoon! I spent the vast majority of it trying to rescue a tiny black kitten that was seeking refuge from the cold under my front porch. No amount of coaxing with alluring "coo-coo"s or dishes of milk or smoked salmon (left over from Christmas!) could get him (or her?) out. After calling nearly 20 cat rescue places and mostly hearing "sorry, there's no room at the inn", I was at my wit's end. Finally, St. Louis Feral Cat Outreach (STLFCO) was kind enough to press their volunteer base into action, and two of them came to kitty's - and my (!) - rescue. They managed to dismantle the lattice work on the side of my porch and tunnel into its underbelly to nab the kitty. I am pleased to report that this cutie is now safely in the hands of STLFCO, where they're giving it free medical treatment. I have also found it a cozy home with one of my neighbors provided s/he isn't claimed by any real owner first. (I have a sad feeling s/he was intentionally dumped in the railroad tracks near my house . . .)
As a tribute this brave and adorable little soul, I am hereby dedicating this week's Spotlight to the top ten animal cookies on the site. Any cookie that had at least one animal in it, and was posted to the "Animal Cookies" clip set, was a potential qualifier. The site then did the rest of the work by automatically tabulating your views, likes, and comments over the past seven days to come up with the top-trending animal cookies as of today. Without further ado, here is that equally adorable hot list* . . . naturally, reindeer are well represented, but there are a few other species tossed in too! 
#1: Merry Christmas to One and All by Cookies Fantastique by Carol
#2: O, Come Let Us Adore Him by Cookies by Brooke
#3: Christmas Time by Medenjaci Sofija
#4: Lumberjack-Themed Party by Azucena Holmes
#5: My Deer Friend by Silviya Mihailova
#6: A Very Merry Christmas by Bakerloo Station
#7: Little Christmas Penguins by Silviya Mihailova
#8: Bulldog for My Daughter by Medenjaci Sofija
#9: Winter Collection by Dragana
And, last but not least, one of the site's most popular Christmas cookies of all time (I'm sure you've seen it on this list before) . . .
#10: How to Make a Reindeer by The Cookie Studio
Congrats to all of this week's honorees! And a huge shout-out to the very caring folks at STLFCO for taking time out of their holidays to help a neighbor in need. May that be a good lesson for all of us to follow in 2019!
So that no one has an unfair advantage in making it onto a hot list, the algorithm is secret even to site administrators. Only our platform developers know the code, which has been exhaustively tested by those developers and Cookie Connection staff.
All photos shown here are the courtesy (and copyright) of the designers listed.
To check out our other hot lists, at any time of day, visit our Hot Spot, also found in the site's main navigation line.
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