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Adorable bear takes dip in pond, floats with her paws up at NY sanctuary

By
Social Links for Natalie O'Neill
Published June 20, 2024, 3:40 p.m. ET

It’s the “paws” that refreshes.

An adorable brown bear named Sonja was captured on camera luxuriating belly-up in a pond at the Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville upstate.

The blissed-out bruin stuck to the bear necessities as she floated in full relaxation mode with her fuzzy head and paws popping out of the water, the wildly cute footage posted by the sanctuary Thursday shows.

Sonya the bear
Sonja the bear cools off in a pond upstate. Orphaned Wildlife Center
bear
The sanctuary called the bear’s dip “delightful to behold.” Orphaned Wildlife Center

“Notice how she effortlessly floats with her toes adorably protruding,” the center wrote under the  YouTube footage. “Truly delightful to behold.”

The center posted the video of the critter cooling off as temperatures upstate climbed into the 90s.

Sonja is a 340-pound Syrian brown bear whose favorite food is peaches, according to the sanctuary’s website.

The 17-year-old bruin lives at the center with her sister, Amy.

Founded in 2015, the Orphaned Wildlife Center rehabilitates animals to one day return them to the wild.