(Unless it's that German shepherd that tried to eat me when I went to pet it outside WTF. Don't tie your dog up outside a bar if it's mean, duh)
Gizmo is just dang happy to be a dog. He walks up to every human he sees, looks them right in the eyes, and gives them a look of pure love and want to be friends and everyone falls immediately in love with him. He throws up a lot and ate a lot of my shoes when he was a puppy, but he's so fluffy and cute, I forgive him. He stands at a perfect plie constantly and is a pro at destroying toys in 30 seconds flat.
Tuffy is not as mad as he looks. He started out the first three years of his life really rough and now he's the most spoiled dog in the world. He would prefer to always be touching one of his people and he sits in front of his brother at the dog park when he can tell he's not feeling safe. He will do anything for food, including biting your face. He snores really loudly, but it's just adorable enough to not be annoying. I treat him like a baby and he lets me. He'll always be my first born. (I'm creepy)
My mom's dog Bailey looks more like a muppet than any dog I've ever met. My mom adopted her when her previous owner, Mike's grandma, passed away and she's been a silly, noisy, muppety presence in my mom's life ever since. I'm so happy they found each other and that she gets to be a companion for two crazy old ladies in her lifetime. She snorts the entire time you take her for a walk and my mom calls it "hunting for truffles" and she has the absolute softest paws you've ever felt.
My sister's dog Winston is such a happy dog. Laura fell in love with pugs after meeting Tuff and she really hit the jackpot with finding Winston. He's the sweetest little thing; always ready for kisses and spins. He is super spoiled, especially once her fiance moved in, but he deserves it just for being such a snuggly little weirdo. He's allergic to bees and has been stung more than any person or dog I know, but he's tough despite his tiny size. He's also basically a hot box; if you sleep with him, you will never be cold.
And some pups from the past who we still love just as much and think about on National Dog Day...
Sonar was probably the weirdest dog ever. She was part coyote, part dog, part mountain goat, part human. She winked at Kristin once which we still laugh about today (and btw, I am partly convinced that Gizmo is Sonar reincarnated and I asked him once AND HE WINKED AT ME). She would lay by me when I would cry, but she never wanted to snuggle otherwise. She once dug her way out of my backyard in Bakersfield while my mom was visiting me and was lost for days in a horrible storm. I found her at the pound covered in mud with bloody paws and kept her at my house until the weekend when I could drive her home and she ate a bunch of chips and shat orange poo all over my rental's carpet. She was such a strange, silly, little dog.
I couldn't find a good photo of Radar on my new computer, but here he is probably barking at us, which is pretty typical. Radar was the smartest dog I've ever met. Like, he could point to the right color if you asked him. He was freaky smart. He was fiercely protective of Laura and trained Sonar himself by being a bossy, barky cow for a couple months until she fell in line. He looked just like Lassie and people would always yell that when they saw him. He loved to attack the hose and hated getting brushed. He was the runt of the litter, but turned out to be the best one by far.
Now, go hug a dog immediately.
