Alyssa Buecker has been fostering dogs for 20 years now, and her current speciality is small senior dogs. They’re her favorites, and she has several of her own. When she got a text from Cuz i Matter Animal
Rescue about a senior pup who needed a foster, she immediately stepped up — and quickly realized he looked exactly like one of her favorite cartoon characters.
“In one of the pictures, he looked JUST like a character from a Canadian kids’ cartoon that [my friend and I] watched in the 80s called ‘The Raccoons’ (said friend even made me a shirt with ‘The Raccoons’ characters on it for my birthday!),” Buecker told The Dodo. “The character’s name was Bert, and the rest is history!”
Bert had been pulled from a shelter near the Texas-Mexico border, where he was brought after being found as a stray. He was covered in ticks and had seemingly been living outside for a long time. The poor pup was skin and bones and had every ailment under the sun, including a broken jaw, ear infection and an abscessed tooth. Despite everything, though, he still couldn’t have been sweeter if he tried.
“From the start he has been THE sweetest, bravest, most loving little guy,” Buecker said.
Buecker has been hard at work getting Bert settled in and his medical conditions taken care of. She’s been posting his journey online, and the internet has swiftly fallen in love with the funny-looking pup. His appearance has been compared to a giraffe, alpaca, raccoon, chameleon and much more. He’s brought joy to everyone who has come across him, and Buecker is making sure to give all that joy back to him as much as she can.
“He loves to eat (but needs assistance to get the food in his mouth because of his broken jaws and lack of teeth), loves to burrow and snuggle in blankies, naps, butt scritches, rubbing himself on people like a cat, and he really likes one of my cats, Bean,” Buecker said. “He has SUCH a joy for life and is always happy to see me, and always excited to eat!”
Buecker originally took in Bert as a foster, but she’s pretty sure she’s going to end up adopting him. He has a surgery scheduled to remove his remaining teeth and make him more comfortable, and the rest of his health issues have been addressed and mostly cleared. Soon all he’ll have to focus on is being loved.
“I feel like he is one of my heart dogs that I was destined to meet, and I feel so lucky that I am able to care for him,” Buecker said.
People online have been asking for Bert merch because of how much they love him, and one of Buecker’s friends is in the process of making it happen. Soon his quirky face will be immortalized forever, which is exactly what the sweet pup deserves.
