It’s a Saturday morning in autumn, and while other people are outside enjoying the last of the fall foliage or cheering on their kids’ sports teams, you’re sunk down on your couch, watching an Animal Planet program about sloths. Could this picture get any sadder?

It could. Turns out that a substantial portion of this particular episode of the program is specifically about sloths’ toilet habits.

So, yes, you should feel pathetic, but, in your defense, the animals are pretty darned cute. The show is called “Meet the Sloths,” and it tries to apply the formula that worked so well a few years ago for “Meerkat Manor” to the slow, sedentary world of sloths.

The eight-part “Meet the Sloths,” starting on Saturday morning, introduces some of the more than 150 animals at a sanctuary for injured and orphaned sloths in Costa Rica, investing them with humanlike personalities and small dramas. And, if you enjoy having unusual creatures inhabit your television, this could be a good month for you: “Meet the Sloths” is the first part of an accidental animal trifecta that will also give parrots and penguins some TV exposure in the next two weeks. Prepare for an emotional roller coaster that begins at endearing, dips to dismaying and finishes at ridiculous.