When you take your dog to the groomer to get a haircut, you expect to get the same dog back — but that wasn’t the case for one Redditor.
For four months, Reddit user SecretSpud had a dog that they thought was her beloved shepherd/Newfoundland mix named Emma, but the author said the dog was acting strangely.
“Physically, she was identical but mentally she was not there,” they wrote. “She began to get more aggressive (She bit my hand when I would feed her scraps, or she wanted my attention), ignore people whom she knew and was acquainted with (this dog bonded to me and ignored my father, brother, and neighbors), and she changed her entire routine with the family.”
This was especially strange because the Redditor said before that point, Emma had been “attached at the hip” to their father, to the point that she would be anxious without him. The Redditor’s father had to temporarily move away for work not long after the grooming incident.
“And this dog that we had gotten back from the groomers was expressing all of my dog Emma’s mannerisms of anxiety of begin away from my father. Or so we thought.”
“For four months I’ve been taking care of and loving this dog I was calling Emma who looked exactly like my dog but somehow different from the Emma I once knew,” the author recounted.
Things took a bizarre turn when one morning, SecretSpud received a call from their mother.
“My mother after not seeing her since we got our dog back from her in June made an off hand comment about how Emma had been acting almost traumatized like since we got her back in June,” they wrote. “The woman played it off like it was no big deal, the next day she called my mother. The call consisted of her asking my mother to bring Emma to a meeting at her shop immediately. Because another dog owner asked her the same question just the other day. An hour ago my parents came home with my actual dog.”
“The dog that I had been caring for was named Bear, and belonged to a pair of near elderly psychopaths. Their dog is my dogs almost identical twin sister from the same litter.”
In an update, the Newfie owner said, “This afternoon the current owner of the Dog Groomers where this whole debacle started with dropped by with an “I’m very sorry this happened gift-basket. Along with a note there was a hundred dollar gift card, dog treats for Emma, a new collar for Emma, and some assorted snacks for my family. All in all it was a nice gesture, but it comes too late and feels entirely like a small bribe.”
Reddit users shared their outrage for the dog owner and her beloved pet.
