#14 — Tepig
You might think that the curly tail ending in a ball would be the biggest obstacle, but no. It’s the ears. You can’t just stick rabbit ears on a pig and expect my mom to believe it’s a real animal. Those are two different animals!
#13 — Eevee
Eevee falls into the uncanny valley of Pokémon. It looks like it should be a real animal, but it’s too…generic. It doesn’t really look like anything, but at the same time, it looks like everything. Something about it is just wrong. My mom would just sense Eevee couldn’t possibly exist.
#12 — Mudkip
I very enthusiastically wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a kid, so my mom thinks I know everything about every aquatic animal. I think that misplaced trust in my knowledge would work to my advantage here, especially if I flattered her by saying I learned about it in a book she gave me when I was six.
#11 — Treecko
My mom retired to Florida and loves looking at the cute geckos that sun themselves outside her lanai. Sure, Treecko stands on two legs, but lizards are pretty bendy. I think I could make this one work if I said he was just trying to reach for a branch or something.
#10 — Turtwig
The angle here is to claim that he’s carnivorous, and the leaf on his head is actually a lure to attract prey. If I say that with enough authority, I think she would buy it. Again, my cred as a junior marine biologist will play very heavily into selling this one.
#9 — Rowlet
If I presented Rowlet as a cute animal meme where a leaf got stuck to a normal owl in a way that made it look like a bowtie, I think she’d take the bait. My odds would be even better if I got her to look when she wasn’t wearing her reading glasses.
#8 — Grookey
I know, you’re thinking this one is impossible. Grookey has a stick in its hair! Animals don’t do that! Don’t worry, I have a plan: It’s a famous movie star monkey whose trainers like to put accessories in its hair and dye it green. More like Hollyweird, right?
#7 — Quaxly
I mean, I want to believe. Hopefully my mom would, too.
#6 — Squirtle
I’m pretty sure that there’s lots of turtles with weird tails. Even if there’s not, the fact that I think it’s true means that it’s not a wildly unrealistic concept. I feel confident that I could explain it away.
#5 — Torchic
Here’s what you need to understand: My mom loves flamingos. Torchic’s original sprite showed it standing on one leg. Flamingos are sometimes orange. I think she would be inclined to believe that Torchic is a baby flamingo no matter what I told her.
#4 — Sobble
Sobble doesn’t really look like anything, but I think that actually works in my favor here. She doesn’t have a reference point to compare it to. I can just gaslight the hell out of her on this one. “You’ve never heard of Sobble? Oh my God, Mom, how did you graduate high school?”
#3 — Fennekin
Fennekin is a relatively grounded Pokémon. It’s basically just a fennec fox with some extra fur in its ears. Honestly, though, I might have trouble convincing her that the fennec fox is real in the first place. I can hardly believe it.
#2 — Litten
I have personally witnessed my mom sharing obviously photoshopped images of cats without the tiniest hint of skepticism. She wouldn’t think twice before posting a picture of Litten to Facebook with the caption, “Purrfect summer night on the front porch,” and a bunch of heart emojis.
#1 — Piplup
Piplup is literally just a penguin. The spots on its chest might look a little weird, but if I needed to, I’m certain I could sell them as nipples. My mom once asked me if fish were mammals, so yeah, I think I could get away with that.
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