After his viral photo, a dog who was born with a very difficult start in life has made the internet swoon with his unique facial expressions.
Oogie is an eleven-year old dog who lives with Emily Gehlhausen in Kentucky. Oogie had been re-adopted from the Kentucky Humane Society at six months old in 2011.
According to Gehlhausen, his owner said, “Oogie had a very rough start to life. After a stroke, he was left with facial paralysis. He is now unable to raise his ears when excited or alert. He also cannot blink or close his eyes at all, for that matter, so he sleeps with his eyes wide open and has to have gel eye drops several times a day.”
Oogie’s bottom jaw is excessively short and lacks ear canals as a result of underdevelopment brought on by the stroke. This is why his tongue protrudes frequently from his mouth.
“To eat, he has to throw his food toward the back of his throat to swallow it—he can’t open his mouth wide enough to chew very well,” Gehlhausen observed.
Oogie is a joy and a significant member of the family despite his health issues: “He has to fight a little harder for things in life with his various complications,” said Gehlhausen. “He does show a bit more aggression towards other people and dogs than most dogs would allow, but it is a direct result of him trying to protect what he has—namely his food and me.”
Gehlhausen has been with Oogie since the beginning. Gehlhausen was unable to contain her joy and began posting photos and videos of Oogie online.
“Every time I showed pictures of Oogie to people, they would light up and smile, swooning over his adorable quirkiness,” she explained: “So I figured I’d share him with the rest of the world because it’s not very often that you come across a little buddy like this. The internet is full of dog photos, but it’s the unusual and unorthodox ones that stand out, and I knew I had exactly that in Oogie with his goofy looks alone.”
Gehlhausen posts all of the images and videos from their joint trips on Oogie’s very own subreddit, r/Oogie.
After posting a recent image, Reddit members hurried to comment on how they felt about the endearing “Oogs”.
One comment read, “I want to be friends with this doggo,” while another remarked, “Perfection personified.”
“My heart was stolen by that adorable face,” another Redditor said. “Such a little cutie.”
Oogie has a positive outlook despite the challenges he faces with daily tasks. Gehlhausen said, “Imagine taking hours to finish a single bowl of food, only being able to eat one kibble at a time, having to dip your whole head in the bowl and blow bubbles out of your nose just to drink a sip of water, and not being able to fully hear the world around you. He tackles life not with a defeated woe-is-me mindset, but with that of a king, holding his head high with pride, not knowing he’s any different than any other dog.”
In addition to winning hearts online, Oogie’s motivational story makes Gehlhausen smile every day.
“My favorite thing about Oogie is his deep, unwavering sense of affection and appreciation for me, something I’m convinced is an unbreakable bond formed when he realized he would never have to worry about being abandoned again at the shelter,” she said: “He’s a once-in-a-lifetime dog.”
Source: Newsweek
