History Main / MistakenForDog

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* ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': To George, Shep the elephant is his "big, gray, peanut-loving poochie." [[AllAnimalsAreDogs And Shep seems to believe it too.]]

* Experiment 626 of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' -- a genetically engineered creature from an alien planet -- is an interesting case. He's mistaken for a dog by the owner of an animal shelter, who really ought to know better. (She also assumes he's dead -- having been run over by a semitrailer -- and yet puts him in one of the cells anyway.) And that was ''before'' he retracted his antennae, back spines, and second pair of arms. Once he has, Lilo is perfectly willing to believe he's a dog. Nani, David, and Myrtle's GirlPosse are far more skeptical.

* Mr Director on {{Animaniacs}} would often refer to the Warner siblings as "puppy children". They were really generic cartoon characters with traits from several different animals.

** In a ColdOpen where they visit their new neighbors [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad the Smiths]], Peter mistakes Roger for a dog.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Puppy" Richard mistakes the vicious turtle he buys from a dodgy van for a puppy.

** In another episode, Principal Brown asks Gumball and Darwin to look after the school hamster, but Brown accidentally gives them a lump of his hair instead. None of them notice until the next day.

* In ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'', when Brenda has [[BlindWithoutEm lost her glasses]] and is stuck in the bus station, she sees what she thinks is a kitten, picks it up... and it turns out to be a jumbo-sized sewer rat. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8cWub7zcgI here]], at about 8:05.

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** In general, pretty much any small wild feline can be mistaken for their domestic counterparts. The worst offenders of mistaken identity are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat African wildcats]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wildcat European Wildcats]], the latter made worse by frequently interbreeding with feral stock as well being the cats' early ancestors before domestication.

* In PiersAnthony's ''Race Against Time'', one clue that tips off to the protagonist that he's living in a human zoo is that his new "puppy" climbs trees, and his "kitten" has a prehensile tail. Whether they're aliens that only ''look'' like house pets, or actual pets modified via genetic engineering, he never does find out.

* Truth in television, with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Cat sand cats]] often being mistaken for domestic cats.

** In general, pretty much any small wild feline can be mistaken for their domestic counterparts. The worst offenders of mistaken identity are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat African wildcats]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wildcat Europoean Wildcats]], the ladder made worse by frequently interbreeding with feral stock as well being the cats' early ancestors before domestication.

See also IAmNotWeasel, AllAnimalsAreDogs. If another animal is ''deliberately'' masquerading as a dog, or has been disguised as one by a human, it may be AssInALionSkin. When the creature is a sentient lifeform trying to pass as a dog, it's TheDogIsAnAlien.

* PlayedForLaughs in a commercial for Sears Optical: A lady badly in need of glasses lets a racoon into her house, thinking it's her pet cat.

* Played completely and horrifyingly straight in ''Film/TheThing'', where the characters bring a malamute home to their base camp and it turns out to be an alien bent on assimilating all life on Earth.

* In ''[[{{Film/Evolution}} Evolution]]'', [[{{Redshirt}} someone]] finds a "dog" which is actually one of the violently aggressive aliens. HilarityEnsues.
* To GeorgeOfTheJungle, Shep the elephant is his "big, gray, peanut-loving poochie." [[AllAnimalsAreDogs And Shep seems to believe it too.]]
* Happens in AdventuresInBabysitting, when Brenda has [[BlindWithoutEm lost her glasses]] and is stuck in the bus station. She sees what she thinks is a kitten, picks it up... and it turns out to be a jumbo-sized sewer rat. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8cWub7zcgI here]], at about 8:05.
* In ''ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'', the pirate's [[PirateParrot beloved parrot Polly]] is actually [[LastOfHisKind the last living dodo]].

* Played completely and horrifyingly straight in ''TheThing'', where the characters bring a malamute home to their base camp and it turns out to be an alien bent on assimilating all life on Earth.

* In Howard Waldrop's short story ''The Ugly Chickens'', a family has been raising what they think are just very ugly chickens for several hundred years. It turns out that they're actually dodo birds.

* {{ALF}} would sometimes be mistaken for a dog, even getting thrown into the pound in one episode. He was also mistaken for a kangaroo once.
* In ''{{Pixelface}}'', at least two sets of visitors to the console (Uthelwynne in two Aethelwynnes" and Alexia's parents in "Alexia's Dinner") have assumed Rex is a dog, despite him talking to them.

* Happens in a StarCraft cutscene: "Looks like you mashed some poor feller's dog, sarge." "It's a zergling, Lester, smaller type of zerg. They shouldn't be out this far unless... [[OhCrap oh shit]]."
* TalesOfSymphonia has Noishe, who Lloyd thinks is just an oversized dog. He's actually Protozoan, a very ancient species.

* TheTick mistakes a capybara for a dog and makes a pet of it.
* Inverted with Ren of ''RenAndStimpy''; most people think he's some sort of rat, though he's really a chihuahua.
* In ''TheLooneyTunesShow'', Bugs mistakes the Tasmanian Devil for a dog.
** Sylvester keeps mistaking the baby kangaroo for a giant mouse.
* In the first episode of ''TheMightyB'', the dog Portia enters in the dog show turns out to be a rat.
* Naturally, this sort of thing happens to MrMagoo all the time. One cartoon has him releasing a panther from a circus when he mistakes it for his dog being taken away by the dog catcher. In the feature film ''1001 Arabian Nights'', Magoo's "dog" Bowser is actually a cat, and a subplot has a ball of enchanted yarn used to make a FlyingCarpet take a liking to Magoo after he mistakes it for a cat and starts to pet it.
* ''KimPossible'': Kim and Ron go undercover at a dog show, entering Rufus (a naked mole rat) as a contestant. Rufus wins!
* TheGoodeFamily adopt what looks like a diseased dog. When they take it to the vet, they discover that it's actually a rare Malaysian marsupial, whose grotesque appearance is perfectly natural.
* On ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', Billy enters a werewolf in a dog show.
* ''MuppetBabies'' once had baby Animal mistake a FULLY GROWN DINOSAUR for a puppy.
* On an episode of ''FamilyGuy'', Peter admits that for the first few years of her life, he thought Meg was a cat.
* On ''TheAngryBeavers'', Dag and Norbert are adopted by a family that thinks they're dogs.

* In the original ''{{Ghostbusters}}'', this is a RunningGag with Gozer's two minion creatures. RickMoranis' character thinks they're dogs, one of his party-goers called one a bear, a policeman explained to Venkman that it was a cougar, and near the end Venkman concedes that his date has become a "dog."

* TheGoodeFamily adopt what looks like a diseased dog. When they take it to the vet, they discover that it's actually a rare Malasian marsupial, whose grotesque appearance is perfectly natural.

* Naturally, this sort of thing happens to MrMagoo all the time. One cartoon has him releasing a panther from a circus when he mistakes it for his dog being taken away by the dog catcher. In the feature film ''1001 Arabian Nights'', Magoo's "dog" Bowser is actually a cat, and a subplot has a ball of enchanted yarn used to make a FlyingCarpet takes a liking to Magoo after he mistakes it for a cat and starts to pet it.

* {{ALF}} would sometimes be mistaken for a dog, even getting thrown into the pound in one episode.
In ''{{Pixelface}}'', at least two sets of visitors to the console (Uthelwynne in two Aethelwynnes" and Alexia's parents in "Alexia's Dinner") have assumed Rex is a dog, despite him talking to them.

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