Dog born with tail growing out of its head
A puppy born with a second tail sprouting out of the middle of his face has been adopted by a dog rescue charity after it was found wandering the streets alone, The Independent reports.
The two-tailed pup has been named “Narwhal” in honour of his additional cranial appendage and has been described as a “little anomaly that’s absolutely perfect”.
The 10-week-old animal has been taken in by Mac’s Mission – a rescue centre in Missouri which specialises in helping dogs with special needs.
The dog has been given the full name of “Narwhal the Little Magical Furry Unicorn”.
“He’s literally the most magical thing you’ve ever seen, and so happy,” said rescue centre founder Rochelle Steffen.
She added: “Everybody wants to see him. I’ve had so many volunteers have come over and said ‘hey, can we play with Narwhal?’ And it’s now become the thing to take selfies with him because he’s just so cute.”
Narwhal visited the vet on Tuesday where X-rays revealed there were no bones in his facial tail, meaning he can’t wag it or use it as a tiny windscreen wiper for his eyes.
He has been given a clean bill of health.
Ms Steffen said her rescue specialises in helping “janky” animals which would not “get a chance anywhere else”.
They have had a dog with five legs, a three-legged dachshund, blind and deaf animals, as well as dogs with cleft palates and mange – but never previously anything like Narwhal.
“Everybody has said that it looks like a tail that just didn’t develop fully, like he might have tried to absorb a twin and it just didn’t work all the way,” Ms Steffen said.
While her preference would be to leave the second tail untouched, Ms Steffen said they would chop it off if it started to grow inwards or gets in the dog's eyes.
She added the rescue centre would not allow Narwhal to be adopted until they are satisfied the frontal tail will not develop into an issue as he grows older.
“We don’t want to adopt him out and two weeks later it does become a problem,” she said.
For now, he is “just a normal, happy, healthy puppy” who is getting lots of attention.
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