So go ahead, drool over his adorable picture. Whether that face is already looking back at you in a frame on your nightstand or on that website just waiting to be found—your dog is ready to be met. You’ll find each other very soon.

SOURCES

2. Genetic Science Learning Center, “Epigenetics and Inheritance.”

3. Liane Giemsch, Susanne C. Feine, Kurt W. Alt, Qiaomei Fu, Corina Knipper, Johannes Krause, Sarah Lacy, Olaf Nehlich, Constanze Niess, Svante Pääbo, Alfred Pawlik, Michael P. Richards, Verena Schünemann, Martin Street, Olaf Thalmann, Johann Tinnes, Erik Trinkaus, and Ralf W. Schmitz, “Interdisciplinary investigations of the late glacial double burial from Bonn-Oberkassel,” Hugo Obermaier Society for Quaternary Research and Archaeology of the Stone Age: 57th Annual Meeting in Heidenheim (April 7-11, 2015).

4. Mietje Germonpré, “Fossil dogs and wolves from Palaeolithic sites in Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia: osteometry, ancient DNA and stable isotopes,” Journal of Archaeological Science (February, 2009).

5. Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger, Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution (University of Chicago Press, 2002).

6. Henri Lhote, The Search for the Tassili Frescoes. (E.P. Dutton, 1959).

7. Kathryn A. Bard, “The Egyptian Predynastic: A review of the Evidence,” Journal of Field Archaeology (Autumn, 1994).

8. John Baines, “Symbolic Roles of Canine Figures on Early Monuments,” Archeo-Nil (1993).

9. Coppinger and Coppinger, Dogs.

10. James E. Johannes, “Basenji Origin and Migration: Through the African Threshold,” The Official Bulletin of the Basenji Club of America (July, August, September, 2005).

11. Edward of Norwich, The Master of Game (1413).

12. Ria Hörter, “Wolf Hunting with Dogs in Western and Central Europe,” The Canine Chronicle (May, 2016),

13. Li Q, Liu Z, Li Y, et al., “Origin and phylogenetic analysis of Tibetan Mastiff based on the mitochondrial DNA sequence,” Journal of Genetics and Genomics (June, 2008).

14. Liz Palika, The Howell Book of Dogs: The Definitive Reference to 300 Breeds and Varieties (John Wiley & Sons, 2007).

16. Norwich, The Master of Game.

17. Coppinger and Coppinger, Dogs.

18. Elaine T. Ostrander, “Genetics and the Shape of Dogs: Studying the new sequence of the canine genome shows how tiny genetic changes can create enormous variation within a single species,” American Scientist (Sept.–Oct. 2007).

19. Peter Savolainen, Ya-ping Zhang, Jing Luo, Joakim Lundeberg, and Thomas Leitner, “Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs” Science Magazine (November 22, 2002).

20. David Hancock, The Mastiffs: The Big Game Hunters—Their History, Development and Future (Charwynne Dog Features, 2001).

22. J. Busuttil, “The Maltese Dog,” Greece & Rome (October, 1969).

23. Bud Boccone, “The Maltese, Toy Dog of Myth and Legend,” American Kennel Club (2015). http://www.akc.org/content/entertainment/articles/maltese-toy-dog-myth-legend/

24. Clifford L.B. Hubbard, Dogs in Britain, A Description of All Native Breeds and Most Foreign Breeds in Britain (1948).

25. Jason J. Crean, “Zoo Genetics—Key Aspects of Conservation Biology,” Chicago Zoological Society (2007).

26. American Kennel Club, “Scenthound History.”

27. Fernand Mery, The Life, History and Magic of the Dog (Grosset & Dunlap, 1970).

28. Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma—The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences (North Atlantic Books, 1997).

30. Morsiani, Short History of the Breed.

31. Carla Molinari, The Portuguese Water Dog (1988).