If this doesn't warm your heart, nothing will. A man has befriended a koala by brushing out pesky prickles from its furry coat and boy, is it absolutely bloody adorable.
Bruce Atkinson captured the moment he brushed the prickles out on his porch on Saturday, giving the world the heartwarming Australian animal story it needed before Christmas.
"Burr covered koala comes up on my porch. He is very knarkie and slaps away a bowl of water. But then allows me to brush burrs off him. Now we are good mates," Atkinson wrote on Facebook.
He told the ABC that he was amazed how benign the previously aggressive koala was after having its fur brushed, saying afterwards the koala hung around the house for the day.
"I could also just go up to it, sit down beside it, tickle it under its chin and pat it on its head like a cat," he explained.
The video has now been shared over 2,200 times on Facebook with many people praising Atkinson's efforts and admiring just how cute the clip was.
"Awww..he must be so uncomfortable with burrs all over! My dog also gets this problem, good to remove them," one Facebook user wrote in the comments.
"Poor little fella he must have been so uncomfortable what a trusting koala I think you have a friend for life. Thanks for sharing this beautiful moment," another added.
Atkinson even jumped in to thank everybody for the kind comments and of course, keep people updated on his new found friendship.
"I was just amazed that the koala seemed smart enough to realise that I was trying to help him and I could not believe how quickly he went from being agro to letting me pet and tickle under chin," he wrote.