The employees at Dallas Animal Services noticed something unusual about this litter as soon as a stray shepherd mix and her 11 newborn puppies arrived in July.
All dogs have facial hair from birth; some even have noticeable beards; but one particular youngster had something special: a handlebar mustache.
Shelter staffers cared for the little family for two weeks, but with as many as 100 homeless animals coming through their doors each day, they knew the situation wasn’t sustainable for the family.
“Puppies are at very high risk for getting sick in the shelter environment, so we knew we had to get them out,” Allison Seelig, of Hearts & Bones Rescue, told The Dodo. “We went to meet them last week and were able to find an incredible foster in Dallas who took the entire family in!”
Many rescues were in awe when they first met Salvador Dolly, popularly known as “Mustache Puppy.”
“The first question people typically ask is, ‘Is that real?'” There’s a lot of shrieking and ‘Omg stop it!’ around her,” Seelig remarked. Since her siblings are all so adorable, we all gushed over the entire family when we first met them.
At 5 weeks old, Salvador Dolly may seem a little young to grow a bushy hipster mustache, but she isn’t ashamed of her fuzzy upper lip.
The entire family is happy to have a safe home, where they’re getting the medical care and attention they need. Their caring foster makes sure each puppy is monitored — mustache or not — and that Mama is kept happy, too: “The puppies are still nursing, which can be a lot for Mom to handle, but her foster makes sure to give her breaks to have some downtime,” Seelig said.
“She’s also getting lots of food to make sure she keeps her calorie intake up!”
While Mama works hard, her pups are doing the opposite: “The puppies aren’t walking much yet, and they spend their days alternating between wrestling and crawling all over each other, snoozing in a cuddle pile and eating,” Seelig said. “Quite the life.”
Once the puppies are weaned, the whole family will make their way north to New York City in late August. There, they will go into new foster homes while searching for forever families.
And, you know that with Dolly’s special look, she’ll have no trouble finding the perfect family.
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