B.C. animal stories that lightened our mood in 2021

In a year shadowed by the ongoing pandemic and extreme natural disasters, it's been increasingly hard to find light-hearted headlines.

But in 2021, animals helped on that front — with stories that put a smile on our faces during a hard year. 

Here's a roundup of the moments this year when animals made headlines and lightened our mood: 

We start off with something completely out of left field involving a northern B.C. farmer who found a lynx in his chicken coop in February.

Instead of yelling at the wild animal, Chris Paulson grabbed the lynx by the scruff of its neck, scooped it from the coop and gave it a gentle scolding.

"He just looked ... a bit like [a kid] with its hand in the chocolate chip bag," Paulson told CBC News from his home near Decker Lake, west of Prince George.  

"So I kind of gave him a little lecture and and then told him he shouldn't come back."

WATCH | Farmer Chris Paulson carries lynx back to the coop to survey the damage:

Speaking of unexpected animal encounters, a Quesnel, B.C. woman had the surprise of her life when she was sitting on her porch during a November evening and looked up to see a bear right in front of her.

"It came right up to me, right in front of me. And then it came around the right side and literally licked my hand," Melanie Porter said. 

When Porter pulled her arm back, she said the bear was startled and and went on its hind legs. At that moment, she was able to take a video of the bear just inches away from her. 

"I was like, 'nobody's going to believe this.' So I had to take a picture."

WATCH | A bear approaches and licks a woman on the hand in Quesnel, B.C.:

Talk about animals acting weirdly — a young male deer targeted a Rudolph-themed decoration in Fort Nelson, B.C., this holiday season — head-butting and stomping the living daylights out of what he thinks is a rival buck competing for the attention of female deer.