Copyright newsweek
A woman eager to discover the true identity of her puppies’ father got more than she bargained for after having them undergo a DNA test. Pet DNA testing has never been more popular. In 2024, the global pet DNA testing market was valued at around $404.21 million, according to business consulting firm Grand View Research. Pet DNA testing has helped reunite four-legged families and help owners discover more about their dog’s breed and likely origins. But few, if any, are likely to have gone on the kind of journey Rachel Mae has been on since deciding to get her dogs tested. It all started in the spring of 2023, when Mae and her husband, who live in West Virginia, adopted their neighbor’s badly neglected field Golden Retriever, Gracie. “She had been kept tied up and given no attention,” Mae told Newsweek. “She was constantly barking for someone to come play with her. After the neighbors had decided they couldn’t take care of her anymore, they offered her to us.” Mae and her husband had wanted to get a dog and, in Gracie, they found the perfect fit. “Gracie was a very sweet and energetic addition to our family,” Mae said. Gracie the Golden Retriever. One day, Mae noticed Gracie was looking a little larger than usual. Gracie had not been spayed by her previous owner and had been booked in to have the procedure. It was already too late . Gracie was pregnant.” When it came to identifying the partner, several neighborhood dogs were in the frame. “In rural West Virginia, it’s common for dog owners to let their dogs free-range over the mountains and valleys, or as we say, ‘hollers. We were the odd ones out,” Mae said. “We didn’t mind the neighborhood ‘friends,’ at the time, coming to play. The neighborhood Sheltie, Border Collie, Lab, and an old beagle often came to play a game of tag with Gracie.” Gracie gave birth just before Christmas to 10 happy and healthy puppies. “Surprisingly, not a single one shared Gracie’s honey red color. They were all completely black,” Mae said. That gave little away about who the father could be. “I knew for certain that the Lab was fixed and the beagle was too small,” Mae said. “The Sheltie and Border Collie both shared dark fur, so it could be either one of them.” Finding out who the father was took a backseat then with the family instead focused on raising the puppies and adopting them out. “We advertised them in many puppies for adoption groups on Facebook and soon found some family friends who we thought would make good owners,” Mae said. “Soon, we were left with only two, who we meant to keep, Rosie and Stella.” Stella, Rosie and Jax. A few months passed until one day, while scrolling through Facebook, Mae was stopped in her tracks by a picture of a familiar looking dog. Mae said the post read: “Found yesterday on Jim Ridge. They were VERY hungry. I’m almost positive they were dropped off. Please contact me if you own these dogs.” Looking at the picture of the badly emaciated dog, Mae was convinced it was one of Gracie’s puppies. Mae decided to reach out to the person who had found Gracie’s son, now named Bandit, and offered to take him off her hands. “When she arrived the next evening, a sickly puppy, with hips sharply protruding from his small frame, jumped out of her van,” Mae said. “He gave a pitiful yelp as he saw Gracie and his sisters then dashed across the yard to her.” Bandit had been found on a rural road in the middle of nowhere and would have died had his rescuer not been driving past. Thankfully, over time, Bandit returned to full health and, having been renamed Jax, embarked on a happy new life. Some doubts still lingered as to whether Jax was, indeed, Gracie’s puppy. There was also the question of who was the puppies’ father. “The only way to find out was to get a DNA test,” Mae said. In July, Mae had Gracie, Rosie, Stella and Jax swabbed. “My friends and family were all in agreement that the father had to be the Border Collie,” Mae said. “But something about the way the Sheltie zipped down the road after cars, which had the puppies attempting to join him, and their matching, distinct dark almond eyes led me to believe these babies were his.” Three weeks later, the results confirmed the Sheltie was, indeed, the father of all three puppies. But there was something else. The results indicated Gracie was a match with a fourth dog, a sibling of Gracie, Rosie and Stella. His name was Charlie. The Sheltie who fathered Gracie’s puppies. Charlie had originally been adopted by a traveling nurse, but Mae had lost touch soon after. Eager for answers, Mae messaged Charlie’s owner but got no response. It wasn’t until October that everything changed. Mae was scrolling through Reddit when she came face to face with a dog that was the spitting image of her puppies. It was Charlie again. “I gasped,” she said. She sent a private mess...
