Family adopts discount "dog" for $10 after their beloved pet passes over the rainbow bridge, they quickly realize that it's 100 pounds of high-hybrid wolf

Author image for Blake Seidel
Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
May 27, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

No one likes to talk about the rainbow bridge, but it's an unfortunate part of our lives as pet owners. You love your pets as much as you can for as long as you can, but eventually, each one of them will have to leave you when it's their time. You take your time to mourn them, but then, you adopt another one to love as much as you can and give them the best life pawssible. That's how this story below started, but it ended quite differently from any run-of-the-mill adoption.

This family adopted a discount "dog" for only $10 (what a deal!) after their previous doggo went to chase squirrels in the sky. Well, after taking her home, they quickly realized something was amiss. The dog was smarter than most people and had some interesting habits. They took the dog to the vet, where he asked them, 'Where did you get a wolf??' Turns out the "dog" was a high-hybrid wolf, mixed with a little bit of husky. Read her and her family's story below!

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    'Within the hour, it becomes clear that something was amiss'
    via AB Photography

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    tumblr Open in app POSTS TALK TO ME! ABOUT THE CHI Mom Adopts a "Dog" So y'all keep blowing up my notes with the various Family Lore stories I've been telling, so I guess I should tell one on my parents now.
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  • 03
    My Mother's Father was part of the United Auto Worker's Union, and during the 50's and 60's, was on strike a lot. My point is, grandpa got himself an entirely deserved reputation for being a sucker who loved animals, so people would dump thier pets on him. Hence, my mother grew up in a house with pets such as Picket the one-eyed tomcat, Tweety the Bald canary, Dummy the cat, Stupid Son of Dummy, Spooky Garbage Dog and Chiquita the Tarantula. Eventually Grandma put her foot down when Grandpa brou
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    I say all this because it provides some context for how the following occured.
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    Mom and Dad had just moved in together (my parents dated for six years and were engaged for 13 days, driving everyone on both sides insane), and unfortunately, My mother's German Shepherd, Cops, has just passed away due to bone cancer. After mourning for a bit, Mom and Dad decided to get a dog together, as a couple.
    via gallusrostromegalus
  • 06
    For context, my father had never owned a dog in his life. His mother had 'Pretty Bird" the budgie as a child but parrots are alien life forms, not pets.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    So they go to the Palo Alto Animal shelter to adopt. The year was 1987, and at the time, Palo Alto was... not a great place. Lots of dras, gags and poor civic managment. Mom told me that she learned to identify different types of g fire while
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    living there. They get there, and mom explains that she's always had a preference for Big Dogs, and the guy's face lights up. Oh Yes, he says, We have a Big Dog. For expirienced owners, yep, adoptable today, here we'll give you a discount even-
    via gallusrostromegalus
  • 09
    Somehow my parents were not suspicious about this.
    via gallusrostromegalus

  • Nothing in this life is free, and now we know for the future: if someone tries to give us a discount on a 100-pound “mutt”, the dog is probably not actually a dog. That might actually make us more willing to adopt them, then.

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    They were shown to the Animal in question, a Gorgeous blue-sable beastie with pretty golden eyes who immediately pressed herself against the fence and gave them the best PUH-LEEEEEEASE TAKE ME HOME puppy eyes 100lbs of canine can do. Mom and Dad fall in love instantly. They sign all the paperwork and take her home for $10, and name her "Mazel" as in "Mazel Tov."
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    Within the hour, it becomes clear that something is amiss.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    ww
    via Egor Kamelev from Pexels

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Cops had lived with his kibble stored in a plastic garbage can in the garage for six years without incident. Mazel figured out how to open doors and got the locking lid off the can in six minutes, horking down about four pounds of the stuff before my mother notices that it's been weirdly quiet. Most dogs bark at or chase squirrels. Mazel stalked and caught one the second day, presenting
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    stalked and caught one the second day, presenting it to my mother like an offering. Mazel knew all her commands but would clearly stop to consider before obeying, and trained my dad to give her good treats within a week. The locks on the side- yard gate were undone, and she took a stroll around the neighborhood, but always retuned home for dinner.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    After a week of gradually realizing that Mazel was smarter than most of the professors my mom worked with, they took her to the Vet for a routine checkup.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    Dr. Hamada walked into the exam room, dropped the clip-board and said "Where the H L did you get a Wolf?"
    via gallusrostromegalus

  • Can you imagine having a wolf in your house? It sounds amazing, very Game of Thrones, but it also sounds terrifying. Would be pretty cool to walk around with a wolf by your side as a 10-year-old kid, though. Basically like a Pokémon trainer!

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    After a bit of prodding and a very-angry- dr.hamada-calling-the-pound, they determined Mazel was a high-content hybrid, probably with a husky, but was going to be a lil sit her entire life. OK, said Hamada, I don't like destroying animals
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    and you've got a lot of expirience with dogs, so I'm okay with letting you keep her, but you should keep her away from small children because her Prey Drive could kick in.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    Two years later, mom got pregnant with me.
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    Mazel noticed instantly, and reacted by digging a large hole in the yard and catching even more squirrels for mom, because she needed the protein or something. That what you do when the Alpha B is preggers, right? Dig a den and ply her with food? On the advice of my grandmother, my mom stayed overnight at the hospital once I was delivered, and dad went home with a shirt that had moms and my scent on it. Mazel spent the whole night puzzling over it.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    The next morning, when mom came home with me, there was the sudden and instantaneous recognition of PUPPY!!!!!!:D:D:D!!!!! PUUUUUUUPPY!!!!!! and Mazel turned into the
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    most aggressively maternal being I've ever met. Playing with me on the blanket, sitting under my chair at meals (I was a messy eater), sleeping under my crib, teaching me to walk by letting me hang onto her fur and shuffle around.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    Dr. Hamada thought mom was a madwoman, until he saw me holding Mazel's mouth open and sticking my face in so i could look at her teeth. He gave up when my mom announced she was pregnant with my sister.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    Cheezburger Image 10509677824
    via Kyslynskyy

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    I'm making living with a Wolfdog sound awesome, but it did come with some drawbacks: • Mazel did have to be muzzled at the vets, because she had Opinions about having things stuck up her butt.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    HAIR. One of my chores growing up was to brush her out every week and I'd frequently end up with more hair than animal.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    the only way we could reliably get her to stay in the yard was with an overhead tether with a STEEL cable, which she chewed through anyway. • Do you like waking up by being hit in the face with half a dad animal? No? Wolfdogs may not be for you.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    • More than capable of opening the fridge and eating everything if you're not watching • Will get into everything if not otherwise occupied. Including eating your tax forms. • Howls along with sirens at 4 AM.
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    PROS of growing up with a wolfdog, as a small child in the 90's
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    • I was afforded a degree of freedom normally associated with a pokemon trianer. It was no big deal for me and my sister to walk three miles through my not-really-good neighborhood to the Froyo if I took Mazel with us. People tended to leave us alone when we had 100lbs of overprotective Apex Predator following us around.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    WINNING at Pet Day at school. There wasn't actually a compettion but Billy's hamster sucks in comparison to an animal that is perfectly willing to demonstrate how she can snap an oak branch in half on command.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    PTA moms losing their sh because Mazel would walk down the block by herself to come pick ups up from school.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    When she was 17, Mom and Dad decided to add another room on to the house. They rigged up the overhead tether so she could be outside but not underfoot for the contruction guys. One morning, mom came out to notice them all milling in the side yard entrance, muttering worriedly. When mom asked what was wrong, one of them explained that Carlos forgot to bring the Hamburger. What do you need a hamburger for? Asked mom, and they pointed down the side yard to where Mazel was sitting, doing her best Vi
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    Apparently they'd never realized that she was on the VERY end of her tether there and couldn't actually get to them, and had been scamming them for a big mac a day for a month. Mom had my six- year-old sister pull her away to show she wasn't dangerous and tired her best not to laugh but kind of failed.
    via gallusrostromegalus
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    Mazel ended up living to be 19 and a half, and except for some minor arthritis, remarkably hale until the day she passed away in her hole in the back yard while taking a nap. I maintain that D th had to wait until she was sleeping to get a crack at her, or she would've taken his scythe for a chew toy.
    via gallusrostromegalus

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adopt rainbow bridge dogs adoption pets wolfdog doggo family hybrid animals wolf
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