Written by Marelique Grobler
Professional photography by elysian
Willow was introduced to us by chance when her foster family brought her with them when collecting something from our house. They told us that Willow was still looking for a home, but we knew that she was already home. Before they left we’d already applied to adopt Willow from Oscars Arc and, two days later, we had the pleasure of collecting her from an Oscars Arc WOOF Project Pop-up at V&A Waterfront.
We were told that Willow would probably not get bigger than under knee height, but we soon realised that wouldn’t be the case!
Now she’s a healthy 35kg (despite her thinking she’s the size of a lap dog and her loving to being carried like a baby).
We immediately knew that Willow was very special and were curious about her mix of breeds. Family members told us about MuttMix as they had the test done with their dogs. We were immediately sold and couldn’t wait to have it done – and we weren’t disappointed.
Willlow’s MuttMix results:
Level 3 Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Level 3 Dachshund
Level 4 Irish Setter
Level 4 Chihuahua
We’re absolutely surprised by Willow’s results and were so thrilled that we arranged a “breed reveal” to announce her breeds to our extended family, and friends, which was a huge success. She was “rocking” her tutu, was spoiled with plenty of gifts, and enjoyed the attention from all the guests.
We couldn’t wait for the guests to pop the balloons to reveal her breeds to everybody. Nobody could guess all her breeds, but a few had one or two correct guesses. Her immediate family had already taken a guess, and there was only one breed that one of us guessed correctly – Dachshund. The other guesses were Greyhound, German Shepherd and Rat Terrier, among others, and boy, were we wrong.
Overall, everyone was shocked about Willow’s breed results and tried to figure out how each breed fits Willow’s personality and looks.
We knew that she had some kind of terrier breed in her, but we didn’t expect the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which now makes sense when we look at her behavioural traits.
The Dachshund breed makes sense because Willow loves to eat, she constantly sniffs around, and she has a long back.
The Irish Setter was quite a pleasant surprise, and now we know where the thick hair around her neck comes from, as well as her presently weighing 35kg. It also describes Willow’s personality and behavioural traits accurately. She absolutely adores our sons and shows lots of affection towards her cat sister, Amara.
Our biggest surprise was the Chihuahua! We would have never guessed! But now it makes sense why Willow loves to sleep on top of our legs and thinks she can fit on our laps – ha ha!
The MuttMix test helped us to understand and appreciate our beautiful girl even more. Thank you, MuttMix Team, and to Happy Tails for featuring our girl!
