May I present Gizmo, Pokey and Scruffy by Connie Sinclair, STaerkel and Dolores Young? They are all beloved doggies whose portraits wound up at the proverbial dog pound of bad art, The Salvation Army. Thank you.

Gizmo's name is on the back of her portrait, but the lady at the thrift store who rung up the purchase said that she used to have a dog just like that, but her name was Muffin. I don't know if she wore pearls. Or if she was day-glo.

Pokey is framed impressively on a gilt and black velvet frame. I call the dog in the painting Pokey because my nephew had one of that kind of dog, whatever it is, and named it Pokey. It was atrociously ugly and wanted to sit on my lap all the time. His eyes seemed like they would pop out of his head at any time and it was sort of like letting a bullfrog sit on your lap, but you got used to it and almost believed the dog to be cute by the end of the whole lap-sitting ordeal.

Scruffy just looks like a Scruffy.