Alex Morgan said her dogs were more excited to see her than her daughter after 35 days away for the Olympics

• Alex Morgan spent 35 days away from home to compete at the Olympics with the US Women's National Team.
• The star striker said her dog, Blue, was the most excited to greet her when she returned home.
• Her 15-month-old daughter, Charlie Carrasco, "honestly thought I was a ghost," Morgan told Insider.

Alex Morgan couldn't wait to return to her daughter after the Olympics.

The superstar striker for the US Women's National Team spent a whopping 35 days away from her 15-month-old, Charlie Carrasco, to compete in Tokyo and earn a bronze medal. Spending more than a full month separated from her child was "extremely challenging," Morgan told Insider, but she assumed it would just make their reunion all the sweeter.

She was wrong.

"She honestly thought I was a ghost," Morgan said of her daughter. "She was like, 'who are you again?' It was like 35 days from when I saw her!"

"It was terrible," she added.

Fortunately for Morgan, one of her dogs was there to save the day. Blue, the family's 110-pound pitbull mix, gave Morgan extra puppy love upon her return home from Tokyo.

"Blue was very excited to see me," she said. "He was like, licking my legs and everything. It's kind of gross, but like I hadn't seen him in a month."

Morgan is an unabashed dog lover and a vocal proponent of pet adoption; she and Blue even starred in a PETA video in 2018. The two-time World Cup champion and her husband, former MLS player Servando Carrasco, even added another pitbull mix, Kona, to the family in September 2019.

Of course, Charlie's arrival less than a year later had the potential to shake up the family dynamic. But the toddler "absolutely loves the dogs" - so much so that Morgan suspects her daughter may think she's a dog herself.

"She hangs out with the dogs quite a bit and sometimes I question that she knows that she's a human," Morgan said laughing. "She loves literally laying in the dogs like beds. I mean, I know they're comfortable and all, but I'm like, 'Charlie, okay, that's enough!'"

"She'll cuddle with the dogs at night," she added. "Before she goes to bed, she'll literally just like go up to them and like bear hug them and just like, hold on for five minutes. And then she like, laughs randomly. I don't know if it's the fur tickling her, but ... they have a great relationship."

Perhaps Blue's and Kona's gentleness towards the tot compelled Morgan to pull out all the stops for National Dog Day on Thursday. The 32-year-old partnered with natural pet food brand Stella & Chewy's to help provide inspiration for dog lovers to honor their pooches and celebrate the support they've provided over the past year.

"It can go from being a little crazy and baking a cake for your dogs, or it could be giving them extra cuddles," Morgan said. "... If you have an extra five minutes or an extra like five hours, hang out with your dog more today because they deserve it."

Morgan said she was aiming "to be in between" and vowed that she wouldn't "go the whole birthday cake type route." But according to her Instagram post on National Dog Day, she caved and bought the bully mixes a sweet treat.