In a “Parent Trap”-esque switch, a woman says her dog was switched with another dog who is nearly identical while at their dog daycare.
In a TikTok that has drawn over 190,000 views as of Friday, user @stuttebooty says that while she gaslit herself into believing that the dog she came home with was, in fact, Farley, her seven-month-old golden retriever puppy, she grew more suspicious as time passed. She said she observed small things, like his behavior and a “mohawk” of fur on his nose that had suddenly disappeared, and chalked them up to the equivalent of puberty for dogs, which occurs when they are between seven and 10 months old.
That is until she saw photos posted to the dog daycare’s Facebook page showing that another extremely similar-looking golden retriever puppy of a similar age also attended the daycare.
“I sent this to my fiancé and I’m like, ‘Do you really want to tell me that they didn’t switch our dog?’” she says. “I had been telling him, ‘I think they might have switched our dog.’ They were saying that there was another golden retriever puppy that looked just like him.”
She says she later learned that the daycare also removes the dogs’ collars during playtime to avoid any accidents, and came to the conclusion that their collars had been switched.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she took the dog, who she learned was named Charlie, to the vet and found he was not neutered or microchipped, both things that her dog, Farley, was.
In a follow-up video, @stuttebooty says she brought her concerns to the dog daycare and was able to have the dogs switched back. Both were well taken care of while switched, she says.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @stuttebooty via comment on the video, as well as to Dogtopia via email regarding the video.
@stuttebooty I want MY dog back!! @Dogtopia Utica #greenscreen #fyp ♬ original sound – maddy
Many viewers expressed in the video’s comments section that they would be so concerned about both dogs in the situation, and empathized with any frustration the poster may feel.
“This makes me so sad,” one commenter wrote. “I’m sure he is being treated well, but they are both probably so confused.”
“I’d be SO livid, scared, sad, etc. I wouldn’t wait until tomorrow!” another said. “You should call them and get them switched back asap.”
“Girl this is CRAZY,” one commented. “I’m so sorry this is happened to you. Way to trust your instincts. I would’ve freaked.”
Others suggested that there were other things that the daycare could do to prevent this from happening again in the future.
“Our daycare puts paper collars with dog name and parent phone number,” one commenter wrote. “Like the bracelets you get at a pool.”
“I used to work at a Dogtopia and there is a board where you write down every indicator available on a dog and that little Mohawk should have been stated on there,” another wrote. “They need to fix this immediately.”
“Our daycare puts like thin plastic collars on them with the name and number in case they get out super helpful!” a viewer said.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
