There was a quote from Samuel Butler, which I don't remember verbatim - but it goes something like, the greatest thing about a dog is that when you make a fool of yourself, he'll make a fool of himself right along with you.

One Christmas I gave my brother a photo I had taken of his little schnauzer Gar (short for Gargoyle) wearing a Santa hat, with that quote in calligraphy.

There was something else from the very old days, from one of the poets - something about dogs possessing all of man's virtues with none of his vices.