A damp chill hangs in the air when the Evergreen State Fair first opens its gates in the morning.

Freshly washed walkways hold puddles reflecting the bright facades of midway games throwing open the metal shutters that protect them overnight. As carnival workers restock the games with stuffed animals from dew-covered plastic bags, they stay warm in their blue zip-up hooded sweatshirts, the company name “Butler” embroidered in bright yellow on their breast.

It is in one of these sweatshirts where 11-week-old Mary Jane takes refugee from the cold. Dustin, the man working the Balloon-a-Rama game, holds the dog gently up with his right hand. She had only that moment stopped shaking. She was finally warming up.

Moments later, sufficiently warm, Mary Jane looks straight up into Dustin’s sunglass-covered eyes. A bushy red mustache hovers over the lips on which Mary Jane plants a perfect puppy kiss.

“It’s a pocket dog,” explains owner Robin Marks, who also works the games along the fair’s main midway. She is a dog that can travel with you anywhere you go, truly man’s best friend, especially on a cloudy morning like this. Dustin warms her body, she warms his heart.