Chris Evans and His Dog Dodger Being Cute

Chris Evans may be an actor, but his proudest role is most certainly dog dad. Evans adopted his dog, Dodger, after meeting the pup at a shelter while filming his 2017 movie Gifted, and he knew instantly that Dodger would be coming home with him.

“One of the last scenes we were filming was in a pound, a kennel,” Evans told PEOPLE. “I foolishly walked in and I thought, ‘Are these actor dogs or are these real up for adoption dogs?’ And sure enough they were, so I was walking up and down the aisles and saw this one dude and he didn’t belong there. I snagged him and he’s such a good dog.”

Since then, Evans and Dodger have become best friends, and the actor has shared numerous photos and videos of his pup over the years, much to the delight of his fans. Scroll through for just a few of the duo’s best moments together.

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For National Pet Day in April 2018, Evans shared a Twitter video of the moment he and Dodger first met.

“This is the moment we met,” he wrote. “He was trying so hard to stay seated even though he desperately wanted to get out. I knew right away that he was coming home with me, so I took this video to always remember our first hello. Rescue dogs are the best dogs!!”

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The actor revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live in October that Dodger’s name was inspired by the 1988 movie Oliver & Company.

“There’s a movie called Oliver & Company. It’s a Disney movie, an animated movie that I grew up watching,” Evans said. “When I first saw him in the shelter, I said, ‘Oh man, that looks like Dodger from Oliver & Company.’ After I decided I was taking him home with me, I went through the process of thinking of other names and I just couldn’t get off Dodger. So I just said, ‘I’m not gonna over-think this one.’” 

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The pair does pretty much everything together, including exercising. In August 2016, Evans accepted the 22 Pushup Challenge and shared a video of himself completing the moves with a curious Dodger right by his side.

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Evans’ job requires him to be away from home for long stretches at a time, and this September 2017 video of his and Dodger’s reunion after a 10 week run of filming proves just how much Dodger loves his dad.

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A cable-knit sweater worn by Evans’ character in the 2019 film Knives Out quickly became one of fans’ favorite parts of the movie, and Dodger got his own version for Christmas that year.

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Evans joined Instagram in May 2020, mostly to share more photos of his dog. His fourth post on the platform arrived later that month and was a a closeup of Dodger lying on a pillow with one of his ears flipped up, a view Evans wakes up to every morning.

“Just woke up to this pillow hog,” his caption read.

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The Massachusetts native’s Instagram page is now full of selfies with Dodger, including this September snap captioned, “He knows his angles.”

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Evans mostly cropped his own face out of this shot, preferring to let Dodger be the star. “They can’t all be winners,” he wrote.

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After Evans shared this October post of Dodger laying on his chest captioned “Dodger lying on DODGER,” fans realized that the 39-year-old has his dog’s name tattooed there.

“That’s probably one of the purest relationships I have so I’ll never regret that tattoo,” Evans told Kimmel, sharing that he’s had the ink for “a few years now.” “I’ve regretted a few in my life, but not that one.”