Puppy found with 'second tail' growing from its head
13 November 2019, 20:05
A puppy with a "second tail" growing from his head has been rescued after being found wandering the streets of Missouri.
The 10-week-old dog has been described as a "little anomaly that's absolutely perfect" after being found with extra appendage on his face.
The little guy, who has been named Narwhal, has since been adopted by Mac's Mission, a rescue operation which takes in dogs with special needs.
Rochelle Steffen, the founder of Mac's Mission, said: "He’s literally the most magical thing you’ve ever seen, and so happy.
"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."
X-Rays showed that there are no bones in the "tail", which Narwhal cannot move on his own.
Ms Steffen said her rescue specialises in helping "janky" animals that would "not get a chance anywhere else".
She said they have previously looked after a dog with five legs, a three-legged dachshund, blind and deaf animals and dogs with cleft palates and mange, but she has never previously seen 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," she said.
"It kind of curls right down under his eyes. We deal with such unique animals here that we love to let them keep their uniqueness."
She said the tail will remain untouched unless it causes any issues, such as growing inward or into his eye.
He will also not be up for adoption until they are satisfied it will not develop into an issue further down the line.
"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.
"Everyone sees him and they literally want to rip him out of my arms immediately."
She added: "It’s been really good for our itty-bitty rescue to have such a rock star in our midst because all this attention is helping so many of our other dogs.
"He loves it, he’s like, 'who’s going to hold me next?'
"He’s just this little anomaly that’s absolutely perfect."
