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How well do you know your dog? Everyone thinks they’ll be able to recognize their own pet right away, but many dogs of the same breed look nearly identical and it can be easier than you think to mix them up.
That’s what one family learned, when they picked up their golden retriever from daycare — and only later realized there had been a big mistake.
The Kelley family of Burke, Virginia own a golden retriever named Ehmi. They often drop their pet at Affectionate Pet Care, a local doggy daycare — Ehmi seems to love it and the owners say they love the business, according to FOX 5 Washington DC.
But in September, they picked up Ehmi from daycare and noticed he seemed different, but they chalked it up to a new haircut, as the golden retriever had just been groomed.
However, they continued to notice strange behavior. The dog had no reaction to a neighbor she normally loves, and suddenly had a new habit of licking people’s faces.
And the family’s cats — who normally get along well with Ehmi — suddenly attacked the golden retriever.
Owners Kebby and Joe Kelley became concerned that something had happened at daycare, or that the dog had gotten sick — but soon, they learned what was really going on: it wasn’t Ehmi at all!
It turns out, the daycare had mixed up Ehmi with another golden retriever named Maddy. While that sounds like a bad mistake, the two dogs do look very similar, so much so that the owners didn’t even notice at first.
“Believe it or not, it wasn’t that hard — that’s why we can’t be too upset with the day care center,” Kebby told FOX 5. “They look so much alike! It’s really difficult.”
Both dogs were soon swapped and reunited with their actual owners.
Despite that mix-up, the Kelleys said they aren’t upset planned to continue using Affectionate Pet Care. And for the future, they have a way of distinguishing Ehmi from all the other goldens: a birthmark on her tongue.
And of course, it’s always important to get your pets microchipped with your identifying information — you never know when these cases of mistaken identity might arise.
“We just never even thought that that would happen,” Kebby said. “I will tell everybody that loves their pet, chip your pet.”
We all think we know our dogs so well that we would never mix them up, but mistakes like this happen! We’re glad they quickly fixed this mistake and the dogs soon returned to their actual owners.
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