Mix-Up At The Groomer Causes Grandma To Question Everything

Speaking with Debbie Patterson, a proud grandmother from Georgia, it’s easy to tell that her mind is as sharp as a tack. But on one recent afternoon, something happened that made her question everything.

Like, who is this dog, really?

Earlier that day, Patterson had dropped off her daughter's little Yorkie, named Chloe, at a local groomer. It had been a while since Chloe had a haircut, and she’d gotten rather shaggy. So, naturally, when Patterson came to pick Chloe up later, she was expecting the pup to look a bit different.

“The guy brought her out and she was licking his face. That's just what Chloe does,” Patterson told The Dodo. “As he put her into her carrier, I thought, ‘Boy, a haircut really did change her hair color a lot!’ I didn’t think nothing of it.”

Chloe was looking as cute as a button. Or was she?

Once back at home, Patterson took Chloe out of the carrier and set her on the couch. Again, she was taken aback by the dog’s new ’do: “I paused and thought, ‘Wow! That really DID change her hair color!’ I’ve never known her to have so much of a reddish color!”

Patterson got up to make a cup of coffee, and when she turned back around, she saw Chloe pacing back and forth on the couch, rather than hopping off like she always does.

“I’m thinking, ‘What’s wrong with you, girl?’” Patterson said. “I thought I’d traumatized her by taking her to the groomer. Chloe never has a problem getting off the couch.”

Patterson started feeling concerned. Something just wasn’t right:

“I thought, ‘OK, I’m going crazy. This just does not seem like Chloe.’ I set her down on the floor and thought, ‘That dog don’t know where she's at!’”

She immediately got on the phone with her daughter.

“I called her and said, ‘I know you’re going to think I’ve lost my mind, but I don’t think I have the right dog.' She just wasn’t acting like Chloe! She said, ‘What?! Ain’t no way you could’ve got the wrong dog.’ I said, ‘I swear to God. I don’t think I’ve got the right dog,’” Patterson recalled.

Soon, her suspicions were backed up by another.

“I’m sitting here for the next 10 minutes, waiting for my daughter and son-in-law to get home, and I’m trying to get the dog to do stuff,” Patterson said. “Well, the cat comes in, and the dog doesn’t even pay her no attention. The cat goes over to her and gets all riled up. I thought, ‘Alright, the cat don’t even know the dog. Now I know it’s not Chloe.’”

Just at that moment, the phone rang.

“It was the girl from the groomer,” Patterson said. “She was asking, ‘Did your dog have on a collar when you brought her home? I think we put the collar on the wrong dog.’”

Suddenly, it all started making sense.

“At that point, I just lost it,” Patterson recalled. “I said, ’No, honey. It ain’t the collar on the wrong dog. You gave me the wrong damn dog!’ She said, ‘Wha — What?!’ I said, ‘I’m serious!’”

Turns out, at the same time Chloe was at the groomer's, there was another Yorkie in for a cut. That dog’s name? Also Chloe.

Patterson had the wrong dog.

Patterson's Chloe was still at the groomer's. The owners of the other Chloe had come to pick up their dog when they noticed her collar was missing. They'd just adopted their dog a few days earlier, and also failed to notice the Chloe in front of them wasn't the one they'd brought in.

Fortunately, Patterson's Chloe has a white spot on her belly which helped confirm her true identity over the phone before the other family drove off with her. "Thank God they didn't take my Chloe home. She probably would have had a nervous breakdown. She’s a very nervous little dog," Patterson said. 

To be fair, the two Chloes do look pretty similar.

It was an honest mistake, but the groomers, not surprisingly, were horrified by the mix-up; apparently, a new employee had made the error. Patterson doesn't hold it against them though, and plans to go back there in the future (and double-check upon receipt, of course).

"It was a case of mistaken identity! It almost caused Grandma to have a heart attack," she said. "When we got home, my Chloe was running around, jumping on and off the couch. I thought, ‘Now how in the world did it take me that long to figure out that other Chloe wasn’t my dog?’"

At least the two Chloes were back where they belonged. Patterson's reputation as a keen and steady observer, however, may take some rebuilding.

"My family is never going to let me live this down," she said. "My grandkids have eaten this story up."

And indeed they have.