It’s possible to get away with just about anything if you’re cute enough. Take, for example, the dog who chewed through a blanket belonging to The Washington Post’s Mary Beth Albright only to be rewarded with viral fame.
The dog, doleful eyes looking away from the hours of Jeopardy! it had likely been watching on the laptop, stares up at the camera with a look that suggests it knows its creation of a makeshift blanket smock isn’t exactly acceptable. Because it’s a dog, after all, and must understand on some level that it looks goddamn adorable in its fabric cocoon, the next photo reveals that everything worked out all right in the end.
Soon enough, seeing a trendsetter poking its nose through to a new fashion trend, a wave of replies showed that other pets know the value of turning themselves into house-destroying blanket hotdogs.
Behold:
What’s striking about these photos isn’t that they capture some of the most unique animal behavior to be found outside of an Attenborough-narrated documentary, but that they mark yet another development in the unpredictable world of “viral pet images.”
The dogs, not knowing that simply being dogs is enough to ensure a place at the forefront of human culture forevermore, seem to be testing and refining new ways to market their cuteness for the 21st century. It’s only natural that Albright’s pet, raised in a media savvy household, would become the smug face of the viral blanket challenge, setting a precedent its canine pals have hurried to follow.
We know the dogs don’t need to do this. They can just lie on their backs and make goofy, floppy dog-grins and that will always be enough for us to love them. Bless their hearts for trying new things, though. None of us need the dogs’ latest innovations, really, but it never hurts to see them push themselves to explore bold new horizons.
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