Rare Fluffy Pit Bull Looks Just Like The Cowardly Lion And We're Obsessed
Just when you think you've seen it all, here comes ... a long-haired pit bull?! Yup, you heard us right. There's a rare fluffy pittie that resembles the Cowardly Lion from "The Wizard of Oz" raking in millions of likes on TikTok, and just like everyone else, we're obsessed!
@kingtheo_princessrosie No doubt about it.... Your boy is 1 in a million! 🦁
"No doubt about it...your boy is 1 in a million!" reads the caption about the unusual-looking pit bull named Theo, whose owner notes that he looks the way he does because of a mutated hair gene. With a smooth face, a wildly furry body, and a rock star-esque mohawk, you'd almost never guess he was a breed of pit bull.
"I can only imagine the head turns on walks!" quipped one person in the comments, as another jokingly asked, "What in blazing Temu Lion King is going on here??" Meanwhile, another thought out loud: "Somehow the intimidation factor has lost its punch." File under: The cutest plot twist you'll see today!
What gene mutation causes this?
Occasionally, normally short-haired dog breeds have abnormally long hair — like Theo, the Cowardly Lion-looking pit bull, or this soft-coated fluffy Frenchie — and the answer comes down to genetics, with one of the biggest players being an FGF5 hair gene mutation, which Theo's owner admits he has. While unusual, surprise long-haired dogs can pop out when both parents carry the recessive version of the FGF5 gene, even if neither parent has long fur themselves.
But what exactly is the FGF5 gene? Well, it basically acts like a natural timer for hair growth, with its job being to tell hair follicles when to stop growing. So, when that signal is disrupted by a mutation of the gene, the hair keeps growing to much longer lengths than normal. In animals, FGF5 mutations are responsible for many long-haired coat types, including the famous angora trait in some rabbits. But it's rarely a trait that happens in pit bulls, which makes Theo's look so head-turning!