A very special pup in Missouri has captured the internet's heart because of an extra tail that sprouted out of his sweet little head.
Say hello to Narwhal, a recently rescued puppy who has a little more to love.
Narwhal is in the care of Rochelle Steffen, the founder of Mac's Mission rescue in Jackson. Steffen told BuzzFeed News she specializes in special needs dogs, whether that means deformities, cleft palates, or trauma.
"Our specialty is special. We've got to take the ones who are going to die without us," she said.
But she's never seen a dog quite like Narwhal. She learned of the puppy from a Facebook post about a pair of abandoned dogs. Friends starting tagging her in the post, knowing it was just the job for her.
"I said 'absolutely,' that looks like one of our kind of dogs," she said.
"We’ve seen some dogs with extra things but not like this."
She initially wanted to name the dog Wipers if the tail wagged, but it turned out that it didn't move. Narwhals happen to be a favorite animal of hers, though.
"One of my friends texted me and said, 'Why don't you name him Narwhal?' and I was like that’s perfect; it's kismet," she said.
Narwhal has been checked out by a vet and it turns out there are no bones in the extra tail, and it also doesn't seem to be causing any problems. Despite the extra tail — which Steffen said is about a third of the size of his main tail — Narwhal is a happy, healthy dog.
"It makes him super special though," she said.
"He doesn’t know it's not supposed to be there," she said.
"That’s what we’ve found over the years with our special needs dogs — if you don’t tell them it's not supposed to be there, they just adapt."
Steffen has been sharing photos and videos of Narwhal on her rescue's Facebook page and people are completely in love.
"I think we’ve got about 17,000 people in line to adopt him at this point," said Steffen.
Little Narwhal has been all over Twitter and Reddit, which is great news for Steffen because it means getting attention for all her special needs rescues.
"I’ve been doing this special needs stuff for seven and a half years, and this has never, ever happened ever and quite frankly it feels like we’ve hit the lottery," she said.
"I think this is pretty much the coolest thing."
Narwhal is even making friends with the bigger dogs.
Steffen is going to keep Narwhal for at least two more months just to make sure the tail doesn't cause problems, and then she'll find him a lucky forever home.
"He’s ridiculously happy. He slept with me in bed last night and he slept next to my head all night long," she said.
"He is just normal. He runs and poops on the floor and plays."
"He just does his little puppy thing and has no idea that world has fallen in love with him."
"He’s been everywhere. The only thing that would make this over the moon is if Ellen called."