Weird Animal Finding

Apparently it's no Chupacabras, but Maine seems to have its own misterious animal. Anything that can kill a Rottweiler or Dobbie is certainly nothing that I want to to tangle with.

I just wish that a wildlife specialist had taken a look!

UPDATE: Through supersleuthing, I have obtained a picture. I am putting it below the fold because it isn't the prettiest thing in the world (no blood or guts, but may be disturbing sto some).

Here is the original picture from the Nashua Telegraph 8/17/06 online edition:

Looking at this, I don't see much different except the short muzzle - which kind of says Chow Chow dog to me.

I rotated the picture to get a better look:

Okay, here it is evident that for the size of the dog(for lack of a better term) the legs are extremely short, and the neck is a bit on the longish side. One would expect a longer muzzle, longer tail and longer ears (they don't look cropped to me). The size of the head seams to be heavy even for the size of the body, even if the muzzle is short. Ever see a Hyena? Their bodies, legs and heads are unevenly proportioned. However, that is where the resemblance ends.

I'm guessing, that this is some sort of weird Heinz 57 dog. But without any experts interested in looing at it, I guess we will never know.

Comments

[bod]

wow! shame there was no picture.

[bod]

ok so i should have finished readin first! that is some weird looking thing tho.i can see where you might see a rodent, cat and dog resemblance. shame no one is interested enough to check it out. could be a whole new species.

[wolfwalker]

Chows actually have a somewhat shorter muzzle than that, not to mention much longer hair. Some other differences too -- if you're curious, you can check the breed standard at the breed club's website. So I kinda doubt it's a chow. The really odd thing to my eyes is the almost conical muzzle, which is very deep compared to its length. My thought is that it's a weird mutt or possibly even a wolf-dog hybrid whose background includes one of the short-snouted breeds.

[Jay]

Yay for getting a picture! I thought it was weird when I saw the news earlier and there was no photo. It's not remotely as weird as the story had led me to imagine.

[bogie]

Bod - I didn't do the update until lunchtime (I read the online newspapers while I eat my lunch), so the picture wasn't up there when you first commented.

Wolfwalker - I know very well what chows look like. I probably didn't express myself very well - what I meant was the head reminded me of a chow mix. The hair length makes no difference; there is both a rough and a smooth coated chow - and have you ever seen a chow that is growing its coat in after shaving? However, as I mentioned, I was thinking chow mix, not purebred anyway.

[bod]

c'mon where are the scientists?! youd think theyd be deperateto do dna testing or something. i NEED to know what this is!

[Mimi09876]

I realllly dont know if that is a dog because i've seen a lot of dogs and I cant resemble this one to any dog I've seen before. (Even if it were a mix; it still looks like a strange but very cute animal.)

[Nicholas Clark]

I have the same dog but my dogs name is Baxter do you like your dogs what are the other kinds of dogs you have?

[Dave G.]

MuluiliDogs; a very rare; some say quarter canine, quarter wolf; quarter Northwoods Timber cat; quarter windigo; said to inhabit; New Foundland, Maine and Nova Scotia; last known picture hung in a Scotia Pub; but some say they saw one in a museum at Nunek; northshore; Indian House. A fierce predator that can easily handle a dog or wolf or bear; weighs 270+lbs. We talked to a policeman in Portland that said his whole family moved down to Portland after seeing one in the forest; their big, their ugly and Id plain stay away from that part of the state...

[math]

what is it?

[luckii]

That is deff. part Chow Chow! Theres a closer pic on another web page of the face and it has a blue/black tung just like a chow and the same type hair. Its a mix Bogie is right. With all this cross breeding (hybrid) you know there will be some weird looking animals coming from it. Poor thing!