Just as every mother knows her baby is Gerber-model adorable, so, too, do we each consider our own furry, four-legged baby the best looking in the universe. Like Kramer so aptly demonstrated in a classic Seinfeld episode,  an infant's  beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are a lot of damn ugly kids out there.

Not so with dogs.  though all are cute and lovable, some are more photogenic than others. 

Scout, for example.

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Like Lindsay Lohan and Naomi Campbell, attractive doggies can get away with way more than their share of bad behavior.  I have one of those cool Homedics clocks–atomic time adjustment, pleasant sounds of nature, time projected onto the ceiling–that suddenly stopped. No crickets chirping or gently falling rain. No thunderstorms, either.  I shook the clock, fiddled with all the buttons and held it upside down. As I lifted my little Homedics up for closer inspection,  I noticed that only wires remained where the plug had once been attached. I was pretty sure this was not the work of mice.

Of course, I could not scold Scout and send him into a shame spiral.  I don't want him to have issues when he grows up. The best I could do was, "Oh, you little monkey!" pick him up and hug him close to me while I planted kisses on his adorable nose. Wouldn't you?