14 DAY TRIAL // Ulster County in New York, US, is now home to an odd-looking pooch that seems to be missing about half its body. The dog, photos of which are available below, is named Cuda, which is short for “barracuda.”
Apparently, its first owners settled on this moniker after noticing the dog's underbite. Thus, they thought that the dog very much resembled a barracuda, and decided to name it accordingly.
How Cuda got its looks
The pooch's current family, Julie LeRoy and her husband, explain that the dog owes its peculiar appearance to a rare condition known as the shortened spine syndrome. What this means is that its spine is not as long as it should be.
Although this condition is fairly rare, Cuda is not the first dog affected by it ever to make headlines. On the contrary, it was earlier this year, in June, when a similarly deformed dog named Pig took the online world by storm.
Julie LeRoy and her husband adopted Cuda some time ago, in 2010. At that time, the woman was working in North Carolina as an animal control officer. She came face to face with the pooch while investigating a complaint.
The woman says that, since they were getting ready to move, the dog's owners were more than willing to give Cuda up. Julie LeRoy agreed to offer the animal a home and Cuda has been her dog ever since.
“While out on a call, which turned out to be more of a neighbour dispute, a complainant brought her out on a twine leash and told me they needed to give her away because they were moving,” the woman told the press in an interview.
“I took a photo and texted my husband. I told him I couldn't take her back to the shelter as they would take one look at her and euthanize her. He said no, but I won the argument and Cuda came home,” she added, as cited by Daily Mail.
Apart from being deformed, Cuda is suffering with diabetes. Hence, its owners must take special care of it. Still, Julie LeRoy and her husband say that they don't mind and that the effort is well worth it.
Cuda leads a perfectly normal life
Despite the fact that she does not look like other dogs, this pooch leads a perfectly normal life. Its owners say that the dog very much likes to play and run around, and that having an abnormally short spine does not seem to upset it.
Seeing how the shortened spine syndrome is not a well-documented condition, veterinarians cannot say for sure whether Cuda will age like other pooches. What is pretty clear is that, for the time being at least, it is quite content with its life and its family.
Julie LeRoy says that, although some people are easily freaked out by Cuda's bizarre appearance, most folks think that this deformed dog looks downright adorable, be it in a quirky and unique kind of way. In fact, the deformed dog is said to have a fairly impressive fan base among Internauts.
