Earlier this week, Matthew Bennett posted a photo on Twitter of his dog Kai climbing over a hedge to touch noses with another dog during a walk.
The tweet, which included the caption, “Every time I take my dog for a walk she has to stop to see her crush. It's like Romeo and Juliet,” soon blew up and has been retweeted more than 75,000 times.
Every time I take my dog for a walk she has to stop to see her crush. It's like Romeo and Juliet
People were really moved by the moment between Kai, a three-year-old golden labrador retriever, and her husky friend, Turk.
Bennett, who lives in Huntington Beach, California, told BuzzFeed News he shared the photo, which is about two years old, after finding it on his computer.
“That picture was taken when she was about 8 months old or so! The husky’s name was Turk. We would always take Kai to the park and the two dogs would play and they absolutely loved each other.
“One day, we were taking her for a walk and Turk was in the front yard and as we stopped to talk to his owners, I snapped this photo of the two kissing. This happened multiple times when we walked Kai past Turk’s house.”
Sadly, Turk and his human family have now moved away, but Bennett said Kai has many other dog friends in the neighbourhood.
“Kai's friendly with every dog," he said. "One of our neighborhood friends actually adopted another one of the puppies from her litter and live a two-minute walk away from us. So Kai and her brother are always together and playing.”
Bennett said he expected the cute photo would get some attention, but was shocked by the massive response.
“Right now, the time we live in is plagued by toxic relationships and shady people doing shady things," he said. "This is kinda of a portrait of what love should be like. It's just a pure picture and it's most definitely heartwarming — not to mention it's just one hell of a cute picture.”