6-month-old puppy with 5 legs gets adopted
Bella has found her fur-ever home.
A unique puppy named Bella has been adopted in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Humane Society, where Bella was previously being cared for.
Angela Speed, the vice president of marketing and communications at the Wisconsin Humane Society, said Bella's new owner, Melissa, who did not want to share her last name for privacy reasons, wore a sweatshirt that read "Adopt the Special Ones" when she went to pick up Bella on Friday to take her home to Milwaukee.
The sweatshirt's message references one of Bella's physical characteristics that sets her apart from her canine peers.
The 6-month-old pup with a brindle coat was born with five legs -- a rare congenital condition called dimelia.
Speed said veterinarians at the Wisconsin Humane Society immediately noticed the pup had a wider-than-usual right hind leg and extra toes when she was surrendered to the shelter about three weeks ago.
"They wanted to X-ray her and were shocked to discover on her X-rays that she basically has a mirror image of the bone structure in that leg. And so she has two femurs, two tibias, two fibulas and instead of four to five toes, Bella has nine," Speed previously told "Good Morning America."
Speed described Bella as "a unicorn of a dog" and said Bella was the first five-legged dog that had been brought into a WHS shelter.
"There's only a few documented cases in veterinary literature of [dimelia] being found in dogs. It's more primarily seen in cattle. It's also a condition that humans can have as well," Speed said. "But in our 145 years of operation, this is definitely the first case of dimelia we've seen in a canine and it's really blown us all away."
Bella was not surrendered due to her rare condition but because she was "too rambunctious," according to Speed. With her extra leg, Bella is still active and runs and chases, just like other dogs.
Bella, who is spayed, was one of 17 dogs up for adoption in the Kenosha area last week. Speed said Bella, in particular, was very social, full of energy and also loved to snuggle when she got tired out.
Speed and the WHS staff said they hope in sharing Bella's adoption story they can encourage people to consider adopting an animal looking for a permanent home.
"We're hoping that Bella's story does shed a light on the fantastic animals who are available at animal shelters. Across the country, shelters have been experiencing really high dog intake but slower dog adoptions and we're feeling that same pressure right now so we're hoping that this inspires people to consider adopting a shelter dog," Speed said.
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