While the weather outside is cold, many of us may have let our pet dog’s fur grow out longer than usual to keep them warm.
But when they’re starting to look like a sentient tumbleweed, it means it’s time to send them for grooming sesh.
When Tykesha Cherry decided to take her 10-month-old pup Lucky to the salon for tidy up, she thought he looked like an entirely different dog when she came to pick him up.
Well it turns out for the 31-year-old, it really was a different dog.
Receptionist Tykesha was left bemused when she picked up her Maltese Poodle, for him to acting totally differently.
Taking a snap of the dog squinting at her and looking a bit shifty, Tykesha decided to call her her boyfriend Quinn to try and figure out why her usually affectionate Maltese Poodle looked so shifty.
It was only when she repeatedly called Lucky's name and got no response, noticed differences in his fur pattern and that his usually smooth pink paws were 'crusty' that she realised it wasn't him – and that her groomer’s had mistakenly given her second pup ‘Bentley’ instead.
Explaining the mishap, Tykesha explained: “I went to pick up my puppy, I went in and the lady at the desk said 'Oh, you're here for Bentley?'. I said, 'no, I'm here for Lucky'.
"As she's walking away to fetch the dog, I was dealing with the receipt. I look up, and there's a dog in my face.
"I didn't get a chance to get a good look at him, all I saw was white.
"I go to the car and I put him in. He turned around and I thought 'he looks so different, am I tripping?'”
Alarm bells rang for Tykesha when ‘her’ beloved pet pup wasn’t responding to her.
But while Bentley looks like an angry mutt in the snap, Tykesha explained he was the sweetest little pup.
“Bentley had a very different personality to Lucky," Tykesha said. "Bentley was barking out the window - Lucky doesn't do that, Lucky is a crier.
"When I picked Bentley up, he was jumping towards my neck, like he wanted me to hold him close. I was thinking 'what's wrong with you? Why do you keep doing that?
"Lucky has pink paws. Bentley's paws were crusty, like he'd been walking around for a while.
"I also saw from looking at the pictures that Bentley had a pink nose, while Lucky's was black."
Horrified at the salon's error, Tykesha raced back to return Bentley and retrieve her beloved Lucky.
Tykesha said: "I jumped straight out of the car and ran back immediately. It was the same woman stood at the door, and she said, 'hi Bentley!'
"I was like 'this isn't my dog, where's my dog? Where's my puppy?'
"They were shocked, everybody was in shock.
"I get the mix-up, they're both white, but I thought they'd have tags in the back or something.
"I definitely felt relieved when I was reunited with Lucky. Like what I feeling wasn’t wrong in regards to him looking different."
Tykesha took to Facebook to vent about the blunder, posting snaps of both dogs.
She wrote: "Went to [name redacted] and they messed up. They gave me the wrong dog in pic one, when the puppy in pic two is actually mine.
"I just kept looking at him outside in the parking lot like you look so different. Smh [shake my head].
"Thank goodness I called Quinn [to] make sure I wasn't tripping before I pulled off because who knows where lil Lucky would have been. I'm highly p***ed tf off."
The post went viral racking up more than 25,000 shares, with Facebook users in hysterics over the hilarious snap of suspicious Bentley.
Despite the mix-up, Tykesha hasn't sworn off revisiting the salon.
"I would go back to them, but it's too soon,” she explained. “I reached out to them the next day because people were bullying them online.
"I didn't want people to do that, that wasn't my intention. I called them and they were very appreciative.
"They said 'you felt how you felt, we can't be mad because we messed up.’”
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy
Kimberley Bond