A Japanese man recently came across a lost puppy sitting by the road. Hoping to reunite it with its owner, the man took the puppy home and decided to ask for Twitter's help in locating its owner. In doing so, he received a surprise he probably hadn't expected.
Twitter user "@marcy_com" said he found the puppy sitting on the roadside in Tsukigata, a town in Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture. He shared four photos of the little furball, whom he named Luna, while asking for help in locating its owner. While many commented to admire the puppy, some raised doubts about its species and suggested that it might actually be a fox or a wolf cub, instead of a dog.
"Isn't this a fox? You should put it back where you picked it from," wrote one Twitter user.
"Puppy? It looks like a member of the weasel family," another said.
One Twitter user asked if the pup was a tanuki or a raccoon dog.
The man also shared a video where Luna was heard making a sound quite different from a dog's barking or howling.
According to Yahoo News, as suspicion grew on Twitter, the man decided to take Luna to a veterinarian who confirmed that the 'puppy' was actually a wild fox cub.
Since it is illegal to keep foxes as pets in Japan, the man decided to give Luna up to Kita Kitsune Bokujo, a fox sanctuary in the nearby town of Kitami. "We have completed handing over the fox to Kita Kitsune Farm," he wrote in an update to thousands of people who had begun following Luna's story on Twitter. "When it was time for me to go home, Luna was cuddled up with other foxes her own age and sleeping," @marcy_com wrote.
Luna, who is about two months old, will stay at the sanctuary until she is old enough to fend for herself.
