An unusually-shaped 8-pound dog named Pig has captured the hearts of Alabama residents and continues to defy odds despite several birth defects.
Pig was born eight months ago in the woods of northeast Atlanta, Georgia, with parts of her spine and several ribs missing, AL.com reported. Parts of her vertebrae are fused in places, her spinal cord splits in two at her neck and her hips and joints are positioned in the wrong direction.
But despite having an appearance that some say resembles a pig, she continues on just like any other, happy dog.
"Pig doesn't know there's anything wrong with her," Kim Dillenbeck, a contractor in Helena and Pig's "mother," told Al.com.
Nor does Pig seem to be in pain.
"The only time she ever cried out was when I got her (micro) chipped. Or when I accidentally stepped on her toe- and you have to step on it really hard," Dillenbeck told Al.com.
Pig is also quite the hero. She was born to an undomesticated dog, and if it wasn't for Pig's barking, her and her sisters probably would not have been rescued.
Dillenbeck, who has experience rescuing animals, said she immediately bonded with Pig when she met her during a trip to Georgia to visit he sister last Christmas. At first she wanted to help Pig find a home, but later changed her mind.
"Pretty quickly, I decided to be her mother because she probably wouldn't live," Dillenbeck told Al.com. "We assumed that by now, she would be suffocating under her own organs or something like that, because of her shape."
Besides a couple of incidents where Pig chocked on her food, the dog is living a fulfilled life. She made an appearance at the Do Dah Day festival in Birmingham, Alabama in May, where she snagged photographs and was the center of attention, Dillenbeck said.
As to how long Pig will live, doctors aren't sure. But they do know they have "never seen anything like it," Dillenbeck told Al.com.
"Whatever time we get with her is our gift," Dillenbeck said.