Seeing a dog in public is always exciting... you stare from afar, wondering 'can I pet it? CAN I?'

But what happens when you *think* you see a dog... but don't *actually* see a dog?

Well, Twitter user Hannah Murphy (@dumb_hannah) showed us exactly what happens. When enjoying a meal at La Linterna in New York with her mum, Hannah's mum tapped her and pointed to what she thought was a cute dog.

However... it wasn't a cute dog.

my mother was giggling at this and told me to "take a look at that adorable dachshund, he's sleeping", she was looking at a purse: pic.twitter.com/ZyNKaLMxKI

— Hannah Murphy (@dumb_hannah) July 30, 2017

Yep, she was genuinely looking at a HANDBAG... or a handbark.. amirite? (Sorry..)

This woman drove me to the restaurant

— Hannah Murphy (@dumb_hannah) July 30, 2017

It's probably a good thing that Hannah's mum didn't go over and ask to pat it.

However, whilst Hannah thought this mix up was a rarity, it turns out a fair few Twitter users had experienced similar mistakes:

I just had the exact same experience at an airport bar in Houston the other day lol pic.twitter.com/F3YRYaCFbb

— Brandon (@TheBrandonLeigh) July 30, 2017

I did this once, smiling hard at a giant bag of yard waste because I thought it was a sweet slumpy old Golden Retriever.

— Kate Tuttle (@katekilla) July 30, 2017

I have legitimately done this

— Did ye, aye? (@marackers) July 31, 2017

Maybe we all just love dogs so much we're seeing what we want to see, or maybe we all just need our eyes tested. It's probably a bit of both.

See what happened when this girl asked to pet what she thought was a hamster. Read more here.