Basic Trope: A non-pet animal is mistaken for a pet.
- Straight: Alice finds an abandoned dog on the side of the road and takes it home. After she and Bob give it a bath, she posts online asking if anyone lost a dog. Charlie informs her that the "dog" is a coyote.
- Exaggerated: Alice somehow mistakes a whole group of animals for abandoned pets.
- Downplayed: The "dog" is a coyote-dog hybrid.
- Justified: Can be Truth in Television, especially if the animal acts surprisingly friendly towards another person.
- Inverted: Alice sees a dog, and assumes it's a coyote.
- Subverted: It turns out that Charlie was misinformed.
- Double Subverted: ...It's actually a wolf.
- Parodied: The animal in question is very clearly a bald eagle, but Alice keeps saying it's a "puppy with wings".
- Zig-Zagged: Some animals are mistaken for pets, and some aren't.
- Averted: Nobody mistakes non-pet animals for pets.
- Enforced: "We need to add a gag about something going wrong, let's have the protagonists adopt a coyote thinking it's a dog!"
- Lampshaded: "I'm calling animal control!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs: Hilarity Ensues as Alice and Bob realize they accidentally adopted a coyote.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob end up being attacked by the coyote.
- Played for Horror: The "coyote" is more than that, it's an Animalistic Abomination that attempts to kill them.
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