☰
☰
As one of the most popular pet around, dogs tend to be constantly memed and posted on the internet in one form or another. Because there’s such a massive audience that knows what it’s like to have a pet dog, and love looking after them, whenever they come across a post or a series of posts, joking about the different antics they cook up in their lives, there’s always a huge run of support around it. For example, the sheer number of memes both on Instagram and various other sites is a true indication of humanity’s love for puppies.
Besides, even if you somehow don’t call yourself a dog lover, you’ll still enjoy these memes. That’s one of the many benefits of our current internet culture. There’s something for everyone everywhere, even if it doesn’t explicitly seem like it. At least at first. There are memes here about different dog breeds, and memes which just use dogs as an appropriate reaction picture for a context. You might even recognize some of these!
There’s a reason why dogs are so affectionate, according to NBC News.
While you read this, there is likely a snoring Corgi-Pug mix — picture a snub-nosed fox crossed with an excitable fire log — plastered against my leg. His name is Murray, and he loves people, in this order: me, my husband, and everyone he has ever met. Once, we took Murray to the vet to ask if there was a medication that would chill him out when other people come over, because he reacts to visitors like a wound-up toddler. Look at me! Play with me! Accept my warm welcome in the form of a running leap at your head!
And then he barks and barks and barks, in the friendliest way possible, in a bid for the most possible attention. The barking was the part that had brought us to the office that day; the rest of it’s honestly pretty sweet.
“Can dogs take Valium?” we wondered.
“There is nothing wrong with him!” said the vet. “He just has too many emotions at once!”
As he said this, Murray’s tubular body was wiggling from end to end, his perfectly curled tail was wagging at full speed, and then he barked at the vet in a manner I would translate as, “HI, IT’S ME, YOUR PAL, MURRAY! HI! HI! HI!”
“Just ignore him until he calms down,” said the vet, ignoring him.
“You’re funny,” I said, as Murray climbed my trunk and barked, repeatedly, directly in my ear as if to say, “TELL THE VET IT’S ME, HIS PAL, MURRAY! IF HE DOESN’T PET ME, I WILL DIE!”
The vet would not give us Valium.
Barking aside, Murray’s enthusiasm for meeting other people — and dogs, cats, squirrels, pigeons, raccoons, etc. — is fundamentally the reason I consider myself a dog person. Cat people have told me that they enjoy the feeling of being chosen by a highly discerning creature, but I don’t want to live with a tiny elitist. I want to live with a bottomless well of love and joy, offered freely to all. “Hello, are you trying to murder me right now? No? OK, cool, I will never forsake you!”
Obviously, not every dog is so cheerfully promiscuous; I used to have an elderly Chihuahua who liked people in this order: me, absolutely no one. But as a recent New York Times article explored, there exists science to suggest that dogs, as a species, are genetically programmed to love everyone. Researchers at Princeton, writes James Gorman: “Identified genes in dogs that in humans are associated with Williams-Beuren syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. One of the many symptoms of the syndrome is indiscriminate friendliness.”
What about you? Did you have a favourite among these? Tell us down in the comments!
