Photo of Smokey the Chewbacca Dog Goes Viral

Smokey the Yorkie as Chewbacca on the front seat of Ian Green's truck in 2010. Photo @ Ian Spencer-Green

My son Ian Green had a Yorkshire Terrier named Smokey when he lived over in Palisade in western Colorado. He adopted the little furball in 2007. Smokey was a wild one. Seriously wild. He was a runner. If you opened a car door or window, even just a crack, he was out of there and off and running. And never looking back.

Here's a photograph that Ian shot of Smokey on the front seat of his big pickup truck on October 13, 2010. He had brushed Smokey's fur back and put a bandolier of sorts on him, making him look like a miniature Chewbacca from Star Wars. Later I took the image and enhanced the colors and put it through an app called Pic Grunger to give it a retro look.

Here's the kicker about this photo--the freaking pic went viral and has had millions of views worldwide. The success of this silly photo makes me laugh. Smokey as Chewbacca gone viral. The photo is on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, all kinds of Star Wars fan sites, websites, online magazines and newspapers like HuffPost and the Daily Mail. Just insane. Bloody insane.

The Daily Mail published the photograph in an article called "Meet the dog that is a dead ringer for Star Wars character."

The article, published in 2011, says, "Little is known about the daft dog - not even its name or where it comes from."

But now you know the rest of the story!

P.S. Smokey was killed by a car while playing in traffic a few years ago. RIP Smokey...errrrr Chewbacca. Smokey's sister Mimi, with a completely opposite personality from her famous brother, still lives with Ian in Fort Collins, although she likes to play in traffic too.

Ian and Smokey in Escalante Canyon in October, 2007. Photo @ Stewart M. Green