Strange story:You know what pet I've always wanted to have, though? An english Bulldog. They look more little monsters than dogs, and I really love their looks and, as far as I've been able to find out on the internet, their general personality is also kick ass!
Oh, and, of course, there's also my childhood dream of owning a cool cool penguin.
My dream dog was Welsch Corgi ($900-1200 most retailers) and my GF's was an English Bulldog ($3000-3500), but the price and our small living area (with no backyard) we didn't plan on getting a dog anytime soon. (We already had 2 ferrets, 1 cat, 3 mice and 12 fish) so we were in no rush to get more pets.
Long story short, we were at the animal shelter, looking around as usual (no intentions of taking anything but just there to browse) when we found a full breed dachshund that had just been picked up the day before. Found wandering after at least 2 weeks abandoned. It was skin and bones and my GF was smitten.
So yeah, we have a dachshund now, couldn't be more pleased even with our previous "wanted dog dreams".