The Dog With 2 Mouths That Inspired A Special Needs Rescue
Oklahoma-based Mutt Misfits takes in dogs with disabilities and intense medical conditions, and it’s all thanks to a special pit bull named Toad.
By Jessie Schiewe
Don’t judge a book — or a dog — by its cover. (Art by Sam Graap)
When Toad was brought into the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter in 2015, she didn’t know what was going on or where she was. Confused and disoriented, the 1-and-a-half year-old blue fawn pit bull began acting aggressively, leading staff to place a muzzle on her. In retrospect, it’s possible she’d never really been around humans before.
During the dog’s intake exam, the shelter staff noticed a few irregularities to both her body and form.
Toad had limited hearing and vision, as well as labored breathing and an off-centered, crooked jaw that resulted in her tongue slipping out constantly. She also seemed to have several ears.
Upon closer examination, the shelter uncovered yet another surprising feature about Toad. In addition to the mouth below her snout, she had another one on the left side of her head.
The dog had two mouths.
“It looked a lot like a vagina, or, as we told everyone, like a butt hole,” said Heather Hernandez who was working at the shelter on the day of Toad’s intake and who ultimately adopted her as her own dog.
A glimpse into Toad’s second mouth. (Mutt Misfits)
“We think it might have been from a conjoined twin that she absorbed in the womb,” she added.
Later, during a dental cleaning performed on Toad’s “ear-mouth,” Heather learned that there were teeth in it, too. Only two could be seen, but there were possibly more deeper inside. Pretty soon, cleanings for both the top and bottom mouths became a regular practice for the unique pit bull.
Read: “Celebrity Names Help Dogs Get Adopted Faster”
“It was actually funny,” Heather told OK Whatever over the phone. “Whenever we’d schedule a teeth cleaning at the vet for her ear-mouth, I’d always joke about how they were going to charge me for it. Would they charge me for a dental cleaning? Or would they charge me for an ear exam? Should they diagnose her with gingivitis or an ear infection?”
Toad was a skeptical dog, but she had a special bond with Heather. (Mutt Misfits)
As Heather experienced time and again, owning a dog as special as Toad came with a lot of learning on-the-go. In fact, neither she nor anyone who met Toad had ever heard of another dog with two mouths like her.
“We searched and searched, and we looked through veterinary journals, but we couldn’t find any cases like Toad. She saw numerous veterinarians here in Oklahoma and none of them had ever seen anything like her either. We think she was one-in-a-million.”
After four wonderful years living with Heather and her husband John, Toad passed away on June 24, 2019, from her deformities and neurological issues. But her time with the couple wasn’t for nought. Her legacy lives on in the form of Mutt Misfits, a rescue organization for special needs dogs that the Hernandezes were inspired to start after their experience caring for the unique pit bull. In fact, Toad’s photo is still one of the first things you see when you visit the organization’s website.
“Toad taught us so much. She taught us that differences, oddities, and deformities don’t have to be feared,” Heather said. “In her honor, we will never stop saving the unsaveable.”
Mutt Misfits works in conjunction with city animal shelters that are unable to care for dogs and cats with major medical cases. Already overworked and overburdened with pets who need homes, shelters know they can turn to rescues like Mutt Misfits that will step in and take care of animals that might otherwise be euthanized because of their extreme conditions.
Last summer, they took in a dog who had a ruptured eye and open wounds on its neck and face, and in January of this year, they took in a puppy who had three ears.
Since 2017, when Mutt Misfits started, they’ve saved and re-homed hundreds of animals with physical disabilities, medical needs, or otherwise tricky personalities. Though a number of their adoptions have been local, the special needs rescue is not adverse to doing adoptions out of state, either.
“Especially because many of our animals have medical needs, that means we really need to find the best homes for them, so if that happens to be out-of-state, we get them wherever they need to be,” said Heather.
Currently, Mutt Misfits has roughly two dozen dogs and cats on their website who are up for adoption, nine of which are labeled as having special needs. Among them are Ditto the deaf pit bull puppy; Venus the 1-year-old female pit bull/bull terrier mix who was saved from a dog fighting operation in January; Callie, a “sassy and hissy” 4-year-old Calico prone to developing UTIs; and Athena, a “flinchy and nervous” 1-year-old female pit bull who was also rescued from a dog fighting ring and who experienced physical abuse.
Read: “Beware of Spontaneously Exploding Dog Food”
“Because we're very involved with the city shelters, they tend to reach out to us for a lot of cruelty cases,” Heather said. She added that her organization also gets a number of hairless dogs, who, due to their lack of fur, often struggle with infections and skin cancers.
Heather Hernandez with Toad in 2019. (Mutt Misfits)
Though the Hernandezes also own a bar — it’s how they “pay [their] bills” — their main focus is the rescue, which they’ve worked doggedly to raise money for over the years. Along with running Go Fund Me campaigns to help specific pets, they’ve also come up with some “out-of-the-box” ideas for raising money, such as organizing drag shows, hosting obstacle course races for dogs, and throwing events at nightclubs.
In fact, they’re open to working with anyone who wants to help their cause, even — or perhaps especially — if they are adult film stars. In the past, Christie Mack, whose “porn star ranking” on Pornhub is currently #90, has helped Mutt Misfits throw fundraisers, and former adult actress Jesse Jane (real name Cindy Taylor) has been a longtime foster and volunteer for the organization.
“I’ve helped them by fostering a dog that had a chicken wing for a leg that had to get amputated and I had another three-legged dog who was burned in a fire,” Taylor told OK Whatever in an email. “The animals are just so special and have so much love and life. I just want to help give them the love and support they need to get that better life.”
One of Taylor’s more recent Mutt Misfit fosters, whom she and her husband ultimately adopted, was a dog named Angelica. A victim of animal cruelty, Angelica was brought into the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter with an extreme broken jaw. Knowing her penchant for special needs dogs, the shelter contacted Heather and asked if she would take the dog under her care.
When Heather first laid eyes on Angelica, this is how she described her as looking:
“I don’t know if you're a scary movie person, but she looked like the face from The Ring, when she screams. Angelica’s mouth was just hanging off her body. She was physically dying as we were watching her.”
The Hernandezes took the dog into their care, and over the course of two months, she went through seven operations, including the removal of her bottom jaw. In all, it probably cost them $10,000.
Heather describes Angelica’s case as “one of the hardest we’ve taken in” because it involved “so much work and so much stress.”
“Everyday I’d wake up and think she’s not going to be alive,” she added. “But it was incredible. She recovered from it all and getting to see the whole process — of when we first saw her at the shelter literally dying to where she is now — it’s the absolute best feeling that you can ever imagine.”
Finding Angelica a home with an avid dog lover like Taylor was just the cherry on top of all the hard times both human and dog went through together.
Toad lived with the Hernandezes for four years before she passed away. (Mutt Misfits)
In addition to the dogs in her rescue, Heather and John also own special needs dogs of their own, such as Petunia, a 4-pound senior whose hind legs are paralyzed. Though she has a doggie wheelchair, she prefers scooting around the house on her own, leading Heather to regularly wrap them with padding to prevent scrapes or injury.
Despite her disabilities, Petunia is still quite mischievous. If Heather leaves her outside alone for more than a minute, she’ll dig her way out of their backyard and try to escape. Petunia also enjoys toppling trash cans and digging through them. Sometimes the bags get wrapped around her, leading the dog to look not unlike Missy Elliott in the music video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”
It’s a hilarious sight to see, Heather said, before abruptly interrupting herself.
“Did someone shit? I think someone did,” she said. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure someone pooped. Oh well, it happens!”
In fact, that’s one of the biggest things Heather has learned about special needs dogs since she’s been caring for them:
“Just because they need a little extra attention, doesn’t mean they can’t do everything other dogs can do — including the bad things.”
JESSIE SCHIEWE IS THE EDITOR OF OK WHATEVER. SHE BELIEVES IN MERMAIDS AND THRIFT SHOPS FOR EXERCISE.
More dog stories on OK Whatever:
