A Little Girl Asked to Pet a Dog, Then Gave the Owner a Very Serious Nod

What's going on

A dog owner was out on a walk when a very small girl came up and politely asked, "Um, can I pet your dog…?" Permission granted, she got to work. Partway through, the owner tried a friendly bit of small talk: "Do you like dogs? ☺️" The answer was a nod, delivered with an extremely stern face. The owner concluded that she probably liked dogs just fine, but humans maybe not so much, and apologized for interrupting.

A little background helps with some of the jokes below. Children in Japan are firmly taught not to talk to strangers, and local police and schools send out alerts about "incidents" involving suspicious adults, which sometimes amount to no more than an adult speaking to a child on the street. So people half-jokingly treat any grown-up chatting with a kid as a reportable case.

Most people, though, had gentler theories about that serious little face.

Comments

A tiny girl came up going “Um, can I pet your dog…” and while she was petting, I asked her “do you like dogs? ☺️” and she nodded with this super grim face. Pretty sure she doesn’t like humans. Sorry for talking to you

「いぬ撫でていいですか…」って来たちっこい女の子がいぬ撫でてる最中に「いぬすき？☺️」って話しかけたらめちゃくちゃ険しい顔で頷かれて人間は嫌いそうだった話しかけてごめんね

@kujirako_ · View on X

The annoyed little girl popped into my head with Asirpa’s face lol (Asirpa is the heroine of the manga Golden Kamuy, famous for pulling wildly disgusted faces.)

嫌そうな女がアシリパさんの顔で思い浮かんだわww

@FishingSea22 · View on X

Opens her heart to the dog, but makes zero effort to hide her total rejection of grown-up small talk. Love how accurately this captures kids

犬には心開くけど大人の社交辞令的な話しかけには全力の拒絶を隠さない子供の解像度高くて好き

Doesn’t like humans, but still asks the dog’s owner for permission. A principled, smart kid…

人間は嫌いだけど、いぬの飼い主に許可はとる。筋が通った賢い子だわ…。

Might’ve gone differently if you’d been walking the dog in a dog costume.

犬の着ぐるみ着て犬のお散歩してたら話は違ったかもしれないですね。

So I need camouflage…… 🐕 ͗ ͗

擬態しなきゃか……🐕 ͗ ͗

“Incident report: child spoken to by owner while petting dog on a walk”

「散歩中の犬を撫でているときに飼い主に話しかけられる事案」

Hello? Police? (for the nth time

もしもし？ポリスメン？（n回目

Um um um 😭😭😭

あのあのあの😭😭😭

Probably something like “Kindly do not address me while I am enjoying the dog!! 💢”

「犬を愉しんでいる最中に話しかけないでくれたまえ！！💢」という感じなんだろうな

Little kids don’t really manage their facial expressions, so their face doesn’t always match what they’re thinking. She was probably just putting everything into petting the dog

ちびっ子、あまり表情管理気にしてないから必ずしも考えていることが表情と一致しない多分を犬を撫でることに一生懸命だった

I bet she was just melting over the dog, then an adult talked to her, she went ( ﾟдﾟ)ﾊｯ!, pulled herself together and gave a ( • ̀ω•́ )✧ｺｸﾝ nod 🤭

単に犬相手にデレデレしてたけど、大人に話しかけられたから( ﾟдﾟ)ﾊｯ!として顔を引き締めて( • ̀ω•́ )✧ｺｸﾝと頷いただけだと思いますよ🤭

Little kids, and also Nocchi from Perfume, sometimes have this “is that really the right face for this moment?” thing going on, and it’s cute. (Nocchi is a member of the J-pop trio Perfume.)

ちっこい子供とか、あとPerfumeののっちとか、「今その表情で合ってるん？」って時があって可愛い。

Nah, let’s just say the doggo was so cute her face went stern lol. I can totally picture it, so sweet lol

いやもうそれはいっぬの可愛さに顔面険しくなっちゃっただけって事にしときましょうw その光景が目に浮かんで微笑ましいなぁw

Just a guess, but maybe she wanted you to know she likes them “seriously.”

たぶんですが、「真剣にすき」というきもちを伝えたかったのでは。

She’s just shy ☺️

人見知りなんですよ☺️

Or kids who go quiet because they’re caught up in “don’t talk to strangers”

『知らない人と話しちゃいけない』の狭間で無口になる子とかね

Maybe she was nervous about talking to an adult all on her own 😌

大人の人に一人で話しかけるの緊張してたんじゃないですかね😌

When this happened to me, the kid followed up with “My mom says I’m not allowed to make friends with strangers……” So there’s also the theory that the face was the result of a little girl’s inner battle: wanting to answer vs. following mom’s rules

私もこれになった時、「ママに知らない人と仲良くなっちゃダメって言われてる……」と言葉が続いたから、ちっこい女の子の中で質問に答えたいVSお母さんの言いつけを守るの葛藤の末その顔だった説もある

When I walk my dog, kids passing by often react like “Oh, a dog! So cute! But that sketchy old guy next to it, though…” Sorry for being a sketchy old guy… but also, I always think, good on them for looking out for themselves

犬の散歩してると、すれ違う子供に「あ、犬だ！可愛い！でも隣の不審なおっさんがなぁ…」みたいなリアクションをよくされるごめんな不審なおっさんで…それはそれとして自衛出来て偉いな、といつも思う

Maybe she just didn’t know how to answer… I have a dog too, and with the good kids who ask before touching, what makes them happiest is “you’re so good at petting~” or “thanks for being friends with them!” Then a lot of them keep chatting, like “I like dogs, but~…” They don’t hate humans

たぶん返答に悩んでるのかも…私も犬飼っていて、ちゃんと聞いてから触ってくれる偉い子供には「撫で方じょうずだね～」「お友達になってくれてありがとう！」って言うといちばん喜びます。そうすると「犬が好きだけど、でも～…」って、お話続けてくれる子が多いです。人間嫌いな訳ではない

Reminded me of being a kid and asking “can I pet your dog?” to every single dog I saw out on a walk. Looking back, it’s kind of a strange custom

散歩犬みかけたら撫でていいですかって片っ端から撫でてた幼少期思い出したけど謎文化だよ今思うと

As a kid I was the kind of 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 who asked the owner of every 𝒅𝒐𝒈 in sight if I could touch it, and this 𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 made me remember that almost every owner asked me “do you like dogs? ☺️” And when I said “I love them‼️” they really did watch over me so kindly. Tears────

幼少期、目に入る全ての𝒅𝒐𝒈は飼い主さんに声掛けて触らせていただくような𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍だったんだけど、この𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕を見て思い返せば、ほとんどの飼い主さんがみんな「いぬすき？☺️」と聞いてくれていたな、と思い出せたし「だいすきです‼️」て返したら本当に優しく見守ってもらっていて、涙────

My take

She must have been giving that dog her full and undivided concentration. Best to simply watch over her kindly.

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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