{"id":295411,"date":"2025-07-27T08:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295411\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T08:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:19:11","slug":"dna-test-reveals-incredible-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295411\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA test reveals incredible twist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Rufus, their faithful Rat Terrier, passed away earlier this year, the Reiff family felt an enormous void.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The little dog had been adopted years earlier from a San Francisco SPCA shelter in the United States, and had become a cherished family member.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Instant connection<\/p>\n<p>A few days later, whilst searching for a new pet to love, they came across Ziggy&#8217;s profile &#8211; another elderly Rat <a rel=\"follow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/wamiz.co.uk\/dog\/advice\/1144\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-terrier-breeds\" target=\"_blank\">Terrier<\/a> available for adoption through Muttville, a San Francisco rescue organisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n    Related video: <\/p>\n<p>From the moment they met, there was an instant connection. Something about the dog felt familiar, almost uncanny.<\/p>\n<p>A DNA test that changes everything<\/p>\n<p>Back home, the Reiffs were struck by the similarities between Ziggy and their late Rufus. Their behaviour, their expressions, certain habits &#8211; the resemblances were too numerous to ignore. Curious, they decided to have the newcomer&#8217;s DNA analysed. The results left them speechless: Ziggy was actually&#8230; Rufus&#8217;s biological father. An incredibly rare coincidence, confirmed by the laboratory, that stunned the entire family.<\/p>\n<p>Even Sherri Franklin, Muttville&#8217;s founder, couldn&#8217;t believe it. In nearly twenty years of rescue work, she had never witnessed such a story. For her, as for the Reiffs, it was an incredible surprise that brought comfort when they needed it most.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ziggy, of course, knows nothing of this discovery. But since his adoption, he&#8217;s been living peacefully in a loving home, unaware that he has found his way back, by the greatest of chances, to those who had already loved his own son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rufus, their faithful Rat Terrier, passed away earlier this year, the Reiff family felt an enormous void.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[109602,267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-295411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-extraordinary-tails","9":"tag-genetics","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114924222077216758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}