Woman Decides to DNA Test the 'Mutt' She Adopted, Not Prepared for Results

A woman in New York who did a DNA test for her "mutt," a dog that does not belong to one breed and has parents of different breeds, has been shocked by the results. The woman shared the results of her five-year-old dog Wilee's DNA test done via Embark in a video posted from the TikTok account @wileefam. The clip has had 1.2 million views since it was shared on March 31. The poster Cathy, who did not share her last name, told Newsweek that she got Wilee from another woman who was about to surrender him. "She told me she adopted him from Atlanta...because I didn't adopt him directly from the shelter, there is missing information I had about his mom and his siblings," Cathy said. "Basically, Wilee's mom was found pregnant wandering the streets of Georgia. She was taken in by the shelter where she gave birth and all her puppies were adopted. She was on a kill list and [at the] last second, the older couple in Arizona adopted her." A message overlaid on the latest viral clip reads: "This is your sign to DNA test your mutt because WTF is going on?!" Cathy says in the video: "Wilee has one new relative Nick, who is immediate family." Showing a picture on the screen, she says "This is Nick. Look at this young man. Is this not Wilee? Is this not my dog?"

The Benefits of Doing a Dog DNA Test

While getting to the bottom of your dog's exact breed makeup can be fun, "the best use of genetic testing is for predicting and preventing canine health conditions," according to the Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center (RCHC) of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Many diseases now have genetic markers that reveal whether your canine companion will develop a genetic problem, or whether they're a carrier and may pass it on. "With a one gene test, you can find out if your dog has the potential to develop a certain illness," the RCHC says. "We want to emphasize the word potential here because as we said before, many genetic problems have multiple factors that influence whether a gene will ultimately be expressed." Knowing your canine's genetic background may also help predict some behaviors. Adam Boyko, the co-founder of Embark and an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, also had his own dog tested. He told the RCHC: "My dog was a shelter mutt that I knew very little about, other than she was rescued from a hoarding situation...the shelter listed her as terrier-Basenji mix, which sounded a bit too exotic to be true. "For my dog, it really helped me get to know her so much better. She wasn't at risk for any known genetic conditions, but she also wasn't part Basenji and was another mix entirely," he added.

'They Have the Same Smile'

A note across the latest viral video says, "They have the same smile...they are like twins," as the footage shows the two dogs side-by-side. Cathy told Newsweek that she did the Embark test for her dog four years ago, but he did not match with any family members, and she only got his breed breakdown. However, "after a few months, more and more family members got added to the database," she said. According to the poster, Wilee's mom was discovered first, so she contacted the owner, who told her that "all her puppies were adopted but not her."

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As more time passed, more of Wilee's siblings began showing up in the database. So far, she's found that Wilee has two sisters and one brother from his litter. Cathy said Wilee's siblings still live in Georgia, the state where they were born in a shelter, and his mom now lives in Arizona. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.