The latest debate: Is this a dog that looks like a bear or the opposite? Since we all know the Internet was designed for the sharing of adorable animal pics, this cute controversy has pulled in – and squarely divided – the animal loving masses.
Writes MSN News on Jan 6: “Social media users are arguing over what in the world this cuddly furball could be. Is it a dog? Is it a bear? Is it some hybrid of the two? Is it perhaps a creature of mythological lore?”
Social media sleuths and Internet investigators were quick on the analysis.
Rachel Zarrell at Buzzfeed sourced the photo, seen above, to a Reddit user who recently uploaded the image and captioned it with: “Somebody brought this bear into doggie day care,” later commenting that the owner “said it was a Pomeranian. But I assume that was code for bear.” If only they knew the hullabaloo that post would cause!
So was this doggie daycare duped into treating an Ursidae member when it really belonged to the Canidae family? Nah. But either way, this thing is uber cute. Let’s split the difference and call it an Ewok.
The incident reminds us of a 2013 story that had people in up“roar” when a zoo in the People’s Park of Luohe, China, attempted to pass off a caged Tibetan mastiff as an African Lion. Zoo curators in China clearly don’t give their visitors enough credit. While the Tibetan mastiff dog does have a lion-like mane, the gig was up when the “lion” barked.
Armchair journalists tracked down our beardog to The Dog Spot, a dog supplier and daycare store from Nashville. An employee there named Ryan Horn confirmed the creature is in fact, a Pomeranian-mix named “Bounce.” Of course, since it was labeled a “mix,” conspiracists started to ask what, precisely, was she mixed with.
Adds ABC News: “Horn explained that Bounce is actually owned by Elizabeth Maguyon, a 19-year-old chemical and bio-molecular engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Maguyon told ABC News today that she and her family were on vacation in Tennessee when they checked Bounce into doggie daycare.”
“We hate leaving her at home and try not to board her as much as possible, so we decided to take her on the road trip with us and then board her there if the hotel wouldn’t allow pets,” Maguyon said, adding that “every single person who walked by her stopped, took photos of her and commented about how cute she was, saying things like, ‘Is that dog a bear?’”
So rest easy, the first dog versus bear mystery of 2016 is in the books.
