14 DAY TRIAL // She may not go to the gym, but she has much more muscles than a long-trained body builder. In the end, whippets should be only lean muscle?.well, not that much, anyway.
Wendy's look differs a lot from the usual long, lean and sleek look of her counterparts. This female dog was born with a genetic impairment which has left her looking like the Hulk of Hounds. All her organs and body parts (head, heart, lungs and legs) are normal sized for a whippet, but her gene mutation makes her bear a double muscle amount.
She is 4st4lb (28 kg), twice the weight of a normal whippet, and she has bulging neck muscles, burly shoulders and haunches like a baboon. And unlike common whippets, characterized by their lithe and narrow frame, this four-year-old individual does not exhibit a six-pack stomach, but a 24-pack one.
Unfortunately, her abnormal genes mean she may display a shorter life expectancy than the majority of the breeds. But even of she looks oddly menacing, the oversized dog is not aggressive at all (she does not have more testosterone than normal dogs have), and she rather enjoys to have her back scratched.
Wendy lives on a farm in Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada, and she has been the subject of an American genetics investigation which found two mutated myostatin genes. Myostatin is a growth protein that limits muscle tissue growth. Even if whippets are normally bred for hunting, racing and showing, Wendy enjoys a slower pace of life, prowling around the fields, chasing farm animals and sleeping on her owner's bed.
"People have referred to her as Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's healthy and happy. That's all that counts. She might give you a nasty lick, that's all." said owner Ingrid Hansen.
Hansen has received calls from media around the world, including the Japanese television, the New York Times and the National Enquirer. "I told them it was no hoax, that this dog is real," said Hansen.
