NPR's Accidental Post About 'Ramona' Is The Sweetest Thing You'll See Today

Ramona is the internet hero we didn’t know we needed

Needless to say, Monday was an absolutely horrifying day. But right in the thick of all the breaking news about the unthinkable massacre in Las Vegas, as we all were grappling with what’s officially the deadliest shooting in American history, NPR made the most adorable mistake post to its Facebook page.

The update to the page read, “Ramona is given a new toy: Smiles, examines for 20 seconds, discards.

Ramona gets a hug: Acquiesces momentarily, squirms to be put down.

Ramona sees three cats 30 feet away: Immediately possessed by shrieking, spasmodic joy that continues after cats flee for their lives.”

It was the cutest thing, and the internet rallied around it in a very big way. Even after NPR deleted the update and apologized for the mistake post that was “intended for a personal account,” people kept sharing screenshots of the Ramona story. After all, everyone needed a reason to smile yesterday. Ramona was that reason.

There was also a debate born. Who was Ramona? Would she ever get a cat? Was Ramona a cat? So many questions, and the internet demanded answers.

Ramona brought so much joy to the internet on such a hard day, NPR followers started asking for more regular updates about her.

People even promised donations to NPR in exchange for more adorable Ramona news.

Luckily, NPR delivered. Today, we got that story, and yes, there is an interview (though not with Ramona, because she can’t talk).

Ramona is the one-year-old daughter of NPR swing editor Christopher Dean Hopkins, who accidentally posted about her on NPR’s Facebook page instead of his own. He’s also the villain who deleted the post.

“We don’t generally delete posts, so I tried to do it in a way that would be transparent,” he explained. “My job is to promote our good work, and I catastrophically failed in that last night.”

Aww, we hope he doesn’t feel too bad, because he did give us something we desperately needed: a light, feel-good bit of news on one of the worst days any of us can remember.

We. Love. Ramona.

As one Ramona fan put it:

As for whether Ramona will actually become a regular part of NPR’s social media presence?

“I suppose if people keep promising to pledge to NPR and it doesn’t distract from the very good work our NPR journalists do, we’ll see,” Hopkins said.

You heard the man. Make your NPR pledges. It’s what Ramona would want.