Legendary National Geographic photographer, Vincent J Musi, decided to take a year off from traveling the world to spend a year at home with his teenage son. During that time, Musi discovered a love for photographing more domestic subjects, namely dogs and even opened up a dog portrait studio during that year in his South Carolina hometown. Musi is quite active on Instagram and has turned his newfound craft into a book aptly entitled "Year of the Dogs", which is due to be released on September 17, 2019. The book is for sale on Amazon.  

We scoured the internet to bring you the cutest animal pictures of the week! Bringing you cuteness every week - stay tuned for next week's dose! If you missed last week's dose, and you need a cuteness overload, check out last week's here.

Thank goodness for @TheDailyKitten! They provide your insatiable appetite with a daily dose of kittens and our obsession just grew tenfold! 

There is also no known cure from kitten dosages, so please proceed with caution... it's already too late for us. 

The extremely rare strawberry leopard has been photographed for the very first time up close! The image was caught by a couple, Alan and Lynsey Watson, in Thaba Tholo Wilderness Reserve. The couple had seen the leopard skulking around the reserve before but was never able to capture it on film. 

The strawberry leopard gets its name due to its unusual reddish skin pigmentation. The images the Watson's managed to get show the pink-hued creature feasting on the carcass on a giraffe, which had been kill during an intense thunderstorm. 

Story via Fox News

A couple of friends from San Diego got a super rare treat while out on a fishing expedition. While traveling at a high rate of speed, they suddenly happened upon an pod of Orcas about half a mile off the bow. Then, one of the Orcas split off from the pod, and burst from the water right beside the boat. The Orca would continue to follow them for around 10 minutes, having thoroughly shocked and soaked them with its first appearance. It was so close to the boat that they said they could have reached out and touched it while it leaped out of the water.

The crew took advantage of the ample selfie and video opportunities. They said the fishing trip may have been a dud, but it was worth it for the Orcas and an "awesome day on the water". But if you thought this was an amazing case, this encounter with a young white killer whale was truly a rare sight to behold.

Living in suburbia, there is nothing like getting away from it all and going into nature, and experiencing everything that urbanization can't offer. Some take it a step further, and seek out foreign lands in order to experience the real wild. So they go on a guided Safari tour with guides and cars that gives them the most authentic experience possible.

But there is no doubt that being up close and personal with animal is an incredible opportunity they probably won't have again. And for some of these people, after their experience, they might never want to again.

These 30 awkward vintage photos of celebrities posing with their cats show us all that cats are amazing animals that bring even the most famous people much pleasure. Via: Vintag.es

Nothing more enticing than a cat's chonky belly! Subreddit r/Delightfullychubby features all the chonky boi and girls and it truly is delightful. 

Enjoy these 17 chonkers to stuff your face into! 

Remember the 101 Dalmatians film? After watching that as a child, I would fantasize about rolling around in a pile of puppies as they frolicked around me. Sounds like a fantasy, right? Well a woman in Australia is living this dream after her pet dalmatian gave birth to 19 puppies, breaking the world record for the number of puppies born in one litter. And the pictures are ridiculously cute.

There's nothing more uplifting than a wholesome cat dump! And it's also the purr-fect antidote to dealing with another Monday at the office as the sun shines outside and the feeling of Summer slowing slipping through our fingers. 

Have some faith in humanity, people! These will put a big smile on your face.