Labradoodle confused for lion

This Labradoodle named Charles lives in Norfolk, Virginia where he's frequently mistaken for a lion on the loose. Apparently, 911 dispatchers received three separate 911 calls this week reporting the "lion."

“I just saw an animal that looked like a small lion.” It had “the mange and everything,” a man said. He had seen it on Delaware Avenue near Llewellyn Avenue.
“I don’t know if it got away from the zoo, or what,” he said

"Norfolk 911 calls for 'baby lion' turn up a coiffed dog" (Virginian-Pilot)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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TheKaz1969

This man knows that REAL baby lions don’t look like stuffed toys, right?
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
  
  Three separate people called 911. Three. All apparently under the impression that lions look like stuffed toys and that baby lions have manes.
  - siliconsunset
    
    If you walked the area around the zoo you would understand. It’s all pretty low-income housing and the folks are the brightest and best Norfolk has to offer.
    - siliconsunset
      
      and by that I mean the opposite. they are not at all the brightest and best Norfolk has to offer.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Even as a lion toy, he looks like he came from the dollar store.
dmc10

I could see that happening from a distance. Clearly the owner is choosing to cut/shave the dog in such a way to create the illusion with that tail and mane. I hope the poor thing doesn’t get tranq’ed or worse, shot, by a cop one day… maybe it’s time for a new ‘do.
- disqus_bQM3NyDyJR
  
  or a leash?
http://twitter.com/carlashusband Clay Michaels

“mange”? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
- Isaac Rinke
  
  Not only is it a full-grown baby lion, it’s got the mange!
  - invictus
    
    mangy tangy lion?
glatt1

Maybe if the owner obeyed local leash laws, people wouldn’t think it was “on the loose” and would realize it’s a pet.
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

Compare with real baby lion
- invictus
  
  Kitty!
dragonfrog

Well, it certainly looks like a medieval heraldic lion, as drawn by artists who had only ever seen local European wildlife and livestock…
- wysinwyg
  
  Well spotted.
- Wreckrob8
  
  Labradoodle passant guardant contourné!
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Or.
- jaytkay
  
  Ecce Canine ( or is it Ecce Feline?)
  
  click photo to embiggen
Lurking_Grue

It’s a lion poodle! Get in the car!
http://obsidian.kokolis.net Chloramphenicol

I will never understand why people insist on ruining perfectly good breeds of dogs like the Labrador by mating them with the poodle…
- wysinwyg
  
  Poodles are good dogs. It’s not their fault they have ridiculous hair and a silly name.
  - eldritch
    
    Every single poodle I’ve ever met has been been aggresive and hyperactive. Either there is something wrong with the breed, or something wrong with the owners, I can’t say which.
    - Gilbert Wham
      
      Poodles were originally hunting dogs.
    - Heather Johnston
      
      Poodles are ranked within the top 5 most intelligent of dog breeds. Maybe the poodles you’ve met were bored and needed a job. Smarter breeds need to be challenged.
- ldobe
  
  Hypoallergenicity. And labradoodles tend to be a little less excitable than labs on average.
  
  Personally, I like them. Just not the haircuts their owners give them.
- http://silverfang77.tumblr.com/ Silver Fang
  
  Crossing labs with poodles ruins neither breed. It merely creates a new breed: the labradoodle.
Jim_Satterfield

According to the article I saw the dog’s styling is meant to resemble a lion because that is the mascot of the university the girl who owns him attends. Her dad thought it was a cool idea.
- TheKaz1969
  
  There you go ruining all our fun by actually READING the article…
http://2000ah.blogspot.com/ Edward

That is hilarious
http://www.tavie.com Tavie

That guy looks nothing like a lion. At all. Does he also think everyone with the same haircut looks the same?
timquinn

Can we declare this “Labra. . . ” word done? Its only been around a little while and it already has the feeling of something I am totally sick of. It is a short use meme. wears out quickly because it is both ugly and ugly.
- TheKaz1969
  
  Sounds like it is about time for a Labra-gate scandal…
- Nagurski
  
  It’s just descriptive of something descended from a Labrador Retriever, as far as I can tell. Stop being so sensitive.
  - timquinn
    
    It’s an ugly word.
    
    Get in line, though, if you want to tell me to stop being sensitive. Take a number.
    
    I’m trying to pre-shark-jump the word, ’cause I hate it.
    - timquinn
      
      the word I have not yet totally spelled out because it is so ugly.
      - robotnik
        
        “Labradoodle” is the name of the breed – what ya gonna do? (And, really, how beautiful is “timquinn”?)
      - timquinn
        
        timquinn isn’t made up by some dog breeder with bad taste, either.
      - timquinn
        
        “Human Being” is kind of sweet, if a bit self important, and a more appropriate comparison.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      You suffer from a failure of imagination. We could cross a Labrador with a Whippet and call it a Labrat.
      - timquinn
        
        I suffer from a failure of imagination? Tell my friend here. He thinks you are funny.
- Wreckrob8
  
  The more euphonious term poodledor exists. I do not know whether it is interchangeable with labradoodle or describes the opposite male/female mix like liger and tiglon.
  Then again pulchritude is an ugly word.
s2redux

Our Chow was banned from the uni’s rural campus because too many city-raised students mistook him for a black bear. (So we started bringing the horse; she got banned too, but only because she was…a horse!)
- Jerril
  
  We passed a black bear in the west-bound lanes[1] on the parkway downtown and initially mistook it for some kind of big dog… until we passed it and I got a good look at its head from 2 feet away. But most of that was pure denial (“No way there’s a bear this far into the city!” – “I don’t think dogs legs bend like that…” )
  
  [1] Both we, and the bear, were in the west bound lanes – it in the slow lane, us in the fast lane. I’ve given up trying to compose that sentence clearly.
  - TheMadLibrarian
    
    I can just see the cop pulling that one over: “License and registration, ple… Holy crap, it’s a bear! Get in the car!!11!!”
esquire

No shit – my aunt and uncle’s dog’s boyfriend-dog is Majestic Charles. How bout them apples?
eldritch

I just can’t figure out how you could realistically confuse this dog for a lion so badly. There are just so many simple, obvious tells to reinforce the common sense thought of “no, that can’t REALLY be a lion, this isn’t the Savanna for crying out loud.”

Lions and big cats have very specific movements and behaviors that are not at all like those of a dog. Lions don’t wag their tails, or walk with them raised. Lions are HUMONGOUS, especially males old enough to have manes. Lions are heavy and purposeful, not spry and nimble. I just… ugh.
- BillStewart2012
  
  Close up dog? Far away lion? Get some perspective!
- ocker3
  
  callers haven’t been watching enough of the right tv shows
- Wreckrob8
  
  Only a few days ago I was watching film of a juvenile leopard, which had just been abandoned by its mother to fend for itself, trying to stalk a wathog with its tail stuck up in the air high above any cover provided by the surrounding grass. Maybe it was just young and inexperienced.
Nagurski

This town is ripe for a ‘Boy Who Called Wolf’ type of lion rampage.
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

You can actually get a “lion cut” for a poodle and we were walking ours in the park one day and a toddle walked by and said “it’s a baby lion!”

But it was nothing as impressive as that labra thing up there.
Marcus Leon Guerrero

Getting confused for a lion is probably what made Snoop Dogg change his name
gellfex

what do you get when you cross it with a dog painted like a tiger?

http://blogphotos.cybertranslator.idv.tw/kaleidoscope/2010/06/pet-dog-dyeing-1.jpg