A dog owner has revealed her shock after the dog they adopted grew to weigh 80 pounds.
TikTok user @lifeofkodabear shared her journey of adopting what she thought was a small, cuddly dog, only to end up with an 80-pound surprise. In a November video with over 1.7 million views, the owner shared adorable footage of the puppy pit bull and Australian shepherd mix rescue dog named Koda.
Predicting the size a rescue dog will grow to is, of course, difficult. Breed, genetics, and the size of the dog’s parents are all significant determiners of size, but rescues rarely get a full history of dogs that come into their care, meaning genetic background can be difficult to predict. Mixed-breed dogs pose a greater challenge in size prediction.
The viral video’s caption reads: “Should’ve known the minute they said ‘we don’t know who the dad is.'” The text overlay on the video says: “Rescue: ‘His mom is 45lbs, so he will probably be the same size.'” The plot twist becomes evident, though, as the video transitions to images of a fully grown Koda, towering next to his owner. The text overlay humorously says that they did end up adopting a dog that grew to 80 pounds.
Each year, 6.3 million pets enter U.S. shelters, which is an average of 17,260 a day, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The number of dogs and cats taken in by pet shelters hit 46,807 during January 2023, an increase of 1,744 compared with January 2022, the 24Pet ‘Shelter Watch Report’ found.
Around 920,000 surrendered animals are euthanized every year. Shelters are striving to minimize euthanasia rates by promoting adoption campaigns, spaying and neutering programs, and behavior rehabilitation.
The comment section of the TikTok post was flooded with users sharing their own similar experiences. Darcy wrote: “Same here. We got the runt of the litter, AND both mom and dad were 45 pounds. Yet we somehow wound up with an 85-pound dog.”
Similarly, TikTok viewer Beth posted: “They said my Bernedoodle would be 50-65. We clock in at 115.” User protagonist added: “Bro same thing lmao [laughing my a** off] they said maybe 60 pounds, and he’s 105.”
Koda’s owners aren’t the only ones to get a shock when their dog grew a little larger than expected, either. Another was stunned when their French bulldog grew much larger than the typical 25 pounds, reaching 45 pounds.
With thousands of followers on TikTok, Koda’s owners share all of the ins and outs of life with the giant rescue, from seeing snow for the first time to celebrating his birthday.
Newsweek reached out to @lifeofkodabear via TikTok for comment.
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This story was originally published January 15, 2024, 8:27 AM.
source: star-telegram
