When Rachel Huertas dropped off her curly-haired pup, Oscar, for a much-needed haircut, she figured the biggest surprise would be seeing him freshly groomed. She wasn’t expecting what came next.
Later that day, Huertas got the call that Oscar was ready. She and her family went to pick him up, admiring his tidy new look — until they got home and started noticing… something was off.
“He looked different, sure, but it wasn’t just the haircut,” Huertas said. “His age spots seemed to be missing, and his breath — it didn’t smell like Oscar’s breath at all.”
Oscar, known affectionately in the family for his less-than-fresh breath, was suddenly minty and sweet-smelling. He also looked a little bewildered, like he wasn’t quite sure where he was.
And that’s when it hit them.
“Some days are weird and you bring the wrong dog home from the groomer,” Huertas wrote online. “That is NOT Oscar.”
Instead of leaving the groomer with their beloved Oscar, the Huertas family had been handed a near-identical dog named Gus.
The mix-up was understandable — both dogs share the same fluffy white coat and similar features. But it was Oscar’s signature bad breath (or lack of it) that ultimately cracked the case.
Once the families were alerted, the switch was quickly corrected. Oscar and Gus were safely returned to their rightful homes — and no harm done.
As Huertas joked afterward, “We love you, Oscar — stinky breath and all.”
