What a Baby, a Dog, and Reddit Can Teach Us About Friendship

This is the story of two unlikely best friends and how they came to be so close. It all started two and a half years ago, when one of them was just a baby and the other was forced to grow up.

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A Reddit user, known only as bleed-black, posted a series of photos that tracks the development of a baby's relationship with his family's yellow Labrador. The entire gallery is summed up in a single sentence: "My son and dog's 2 1/2 year friendship." 

This is how it all started. (via imgur)What follows is a photo essay on the evolution of an honest-to-goodness friendship betweentwo species. 

It starts with a dog nose, resting closer to a newborn — specifically, the newborn who co-opted the pup's role as the family baby. 
As time passes, the dog's snout paves the way for full-fledged cuddles, mutual eye-gazing, and eventually a kiss. As months pass, the baby develops and so does his friendship with his four-legged older sibling.  

They show each other their bellies, they watch movies together, and they generally put up with behavior neither one of them would tolerate from other folks. Don't think that dog gives back rides to just anyone. And sharing toys? Toddlers aren't usually big on that.

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The photos may not seem as spit-take worthy as, say, a cat playing piano, but in the age of cute overload, sometimes it's the simple things that really move us. 

"I smiled and cried simultaneously. This is so, so adorable that my emotions just can't process it," wrote one of the more than 1,700  Reddit users who commented on the post. "I'm so impressed by your dog's patience," added another.
The things we do for love. (via imgur)The images, which were posted a month ago, have since racked up almost 150,000 views, and as of this week, they made a dent on Twitter, thanks to pickup from sites likeBuzzfeed and PBS's parenting blog. 

Yahoo! Shine reached out to the parent who posted the photos for more information but hasn't yet received a response. Maybe it's better that way. Aside from a dozen heart-eyed emojis, there's not much more to say about a boy and his dog. It took some time, but now they're best friends. That is all. VIDEO