Tory Chang was driving through the rain in a rural area when they spotted a tiny animal stuck in the mud. She was freezing and all alone, so Chang scooped her up and brought her into their car. Chang thought she looked like a baby fox and quickly contacted For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue for help.
We asked the finder for a photo and were instantly a little puzzled because the ‘fox’ looked more like a coyote pup in the face, paws and tail in the blurry, dark picture we received but had markings more like a red fox,” For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue wrote on Facebook. “We figured we’d get a better look at her feet, size and markings and positively identify her once she got here.”
Chang drove several hours to drop off the mystery animal, later named Yoti, and when they arrived, Yoti was met with even more confusion.
Her new friends at the rescue thought she looked much more like a puppy than a wild animal, but couldn’t know for sure without a DNA test. Since the rescue isn’t equipped to care for puppies, she went to a foster home instead while everyone waited to find out what kind of animal the little mystery pup actually was.
As Yoti grew, so did the confusion about her identity, and everyone once again changed their minds about what they thought she was.
“Yoti, a brindle and white mystery pup, is continuing to do very well as we await the results of her DNA test,” the rescue wrote. “As she’s gotten older, her temperament proved to be too much for a domestic rescue to handle.”
She eventually became too wild to stay in the care of her foster mom and ended up back at For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue as they continued to wait for the results of her DNA test. As they got to know her, they became pretty confident about what she was.
Her temperament, paw pad shape and vocalizations are all exactly like a cross between a coyote and a domestic dog, but we won’t be able to confirm exactly what she is until we’ve seen her DNA test results,” the rescue wrote. “She must have at least one domestic dog ancestor since brindle markings do not naturally occur in full-blooded coyotes.”
Finally, the results came in — and Yoti’s friends at the rescue were right.
ti does have genetic markers that are unique to domestic dogs and were introduced within the last four generations,” the rescue wrote. “Coyote-domestic dog hybrids rarely occur or survive in the wild … But life, uh … finds a way.”