Today’s Zippy strip — anticipating Teddy Bear Picnic Day by just one day (yes, this is relevant) — has our Pinhead engaged with a fiberglass Doggie head from the Doggie Diner chain (1948-86 in San Francisco and Oakland):
(#1) Doggie is a repeating character in Zippy, and the two are usually quite loquacious with one other — in my 12/27/13 posting “Doggie Diner”, they are in fact in a relationship — but so far in this strip, Doggie hasn’t gotten past the basic canine woof
Woofs. From NOAD:
noun woof1: the barking sound made by a dog: the distant woof of a dog | [as exclamation]: a dog never learns to go “Woof!”.
verb woof: [no object] [a] (of a dog) bark: the dog started to woof. [b] US informal say something in a boastful or aggressive manner: mister, you weren’t just woofing — you can cook.
And from GDoS, a variety of other slang uses of the noun and verb, plus:
excl. woof!: 1 used by a man on seeing a passing attractive young woman [AZ: or a gay man on seeing a passing attractive young man; used especially in gay bear culture — this is where the bears come in — but far from exclusively there]; or vice versa (? an imitation of the howl of a lovesick dog) [1st cite 1927] 2 a [extension of sense 1] non-sexual excl. of appreciation. [1st cite 1944]
woof, woof-worthy, and woofable. Some images.
On the Zazzle site: a woof mouse pad with the stripes of the gay Bear Pride flag on it:
(#2)
Two woofy images from the Pinterest board Woof Worthy 1:
(3) Pin by Eddie
(#4) Pin of Arik Kuper
(Especially among gay bears, woof-worthy images are apparently also called woofable.)