‘It’s a gift’: Family mourning long-time pet find near carbon copy at shelter

SAN FRANCISCO — A few days after a California family lost their eldest dog Rufus, they stumbled across a senior dog rescue’s Facebook post about a senior Miniature Pinscher in need of a new home. 

The catch? He looked identical the pack leader they just lost. 

“When (my daughter) showed me him, I nearly lost my breath — as I had never in the decade we had Rufus seen another dog like him,” said Jillian Reiff in a post recalling why they adopted the dog now known as Ziggy. “Yet, here I was staring at his twin.” 

Rufus had been with the family since 2016 when they picked him up from the San Francisco SPCA. He was there when Reiff and her husband got married and was the first guest to meet their two children, according to ABC7 San Francisco. 

When he unexpectedly died in April, the family, who often fostered dogs, told ABC7 they weren’t ready for another dog. One day, they stumbled across Muttville Senior Dog Rescue’s Facebook post about a senior dog named Memphis needing a home. 

Reiff said she “rushed” to the shelter when they saw how Memphis looked nearly identical to Rufus. They took the senior pup home and renamed him Ziggy.

“Though everyone grieves in their own way, Ziggy felt like a gift,” she said. “Seeing his happy face reminded us so much of our beloved boy, it brought peace to a house that had been crying for days.” 

Reiff realized the similarities didn’t stop at their looks. 

Apparently both Ziggy and Rufus “talk,” are obsessed with the children, cover their heads with a blanket when it’s time for bed and more. 

It made Reiff’s daughter suspect they were related in some way. 

“Our daughter is convinced they were brothers. She fervently believes Rufus “sent” Ziggy to our family so we wouldn’t be sad,” said Reiff. “Ziggy has lived up to that and then some. He waltzed through our door like he had been here his whole life.”

The family did a DNA test and it turns out Ziggy is actually Rufus’ father. 

“They were an identical DNA match. Ziggy was actually Rufus’s biological father,” Reiff told ABC7. “They share a good chunk of their DNA. I screamed. I screamed at my job, in my conference room. I almost passed out!”

It’s something that stumped both her and Sherri Franklin, CEO of Muttville, who has helped rehome 13,000 dogs, described the incident as “almost unbelievable.”

“I thought I’d heard everything,” Franklin told ABC7. “It’s wild.” 

“This doesn’t make sense,” Reiff told CBS News Bay Area. “And I have to be OK with that and just accept it as the amazing gift that it is.”