Something strange was caught in our dog’s fur—a tiny, translucent shape that seemed completely out of place. It caught the light as he moved, and for a few seconds, neither of us could figure out what we were looking at.
Of course, our minds immediately went to the worst possibilities.
Was it a tick? Some kind of parasite? Had he picked up something dangerous during his walk?
Our dog, meanwhile, couldn’t have cared less.
He wandered around the apartment, happily wagging his tail while the two of us followed him around like detectives investigating a crime scene.
Our Imaginations Went Into Overdrive
The closer we looked, the more mysterious the object seemed.
It was small, oddly shaped, and firmly tangled in his fur. Because it was attached to the dog and we couldn’t immediately identify it, every possibility seemed worse than the last.
We started imagining everything from parasites to some strange insect that had somehow managed to hitch a ride home.
The dog continued sniffing around the room, completely unaware that his owners were having a minor panic attack.
That’s the funny thing about fear. When you don’t know what you’re looking at, your brain tends to fill in the missing information—and it rarely chooses the most reassuring explanation.
Then We Took a Better Look
Eventually, my girlfriend crouched down beside him and examined the mysterious object under the kitchen light.
Something about it didn’t seem quite right for a living creature.
She gently touched it.
That’s when the whole mystery began to unravel.
The strange shape wasn’t moving on its own.
It wasn’t a tick.
It wasn’t a parasite.
And it certainly wasn’t some terrifying creature we’d somehow brought home.
It was a fake eyelash.
Somehow, a pair of false eyelashes had become tangled in our dog’s fur during his walk. The damp weather had left them warped and soggy, making them look considerably more mysterious than they really were.
