Viral Video of Lion In Ireland That Was Anything But

VIRAL VIDEO OF A LION IN IRELAND TURNS OUT TO BE ANYTHING BUT

Remember back in the day when viral was pretty much exclusively a medical term? Boy, those were the days! If you got a viral infection, you just went to the doctor and got it taken care of. But these days viral spins out of control in a misunderstood microsecond, and then balloons exponentially with every second that passes. Sometimes a viral misunderstanding makes you want to tear out your hair. But other times it’s good for a perfect laugh, and this is definitely one of those times. Because some folks thought they saw a lion in Ireland, and when one video went online of the “lion” walking into a forest, it obviously went viral.

POLICE CAME TO INVESTIGATE AFTER VIRAL VIDEO, OTHER WITNESSES SAW “LION”

Because: a lion in Ireland? What? Fortunately, the creature people were seeing from a distance that certainly looked like a lion was anything but. From the picture you can forgive folks for making the error. But the viral video created some worry, shall we say. So police went to investigate around the wooded area of Eastern County Clare, and I’m sure with some amount of trepidation. But it didn’t take the local Gardaí, stationed in Killaloe, too long to realize that the lion was, in fact, a Newfoundland dog with a leading (misleading?) haircut.

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BUT THE VIRAL VIDEO TOTALLY MISSED THAT THE LION WAS REALLY A NEWFIE DOG NAMED MOUSE

That’s right! The Irish lion was really just a Newfie named “Mouse,” just like the dog from Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden book series. Well, except that dog was a Tibetan Mastiff, not a Newfie. So what at first was a bit of a mystery from people seeing “an unknown animal” then became a bit more urgent after a truck driver shot a viral video of a “lion” walking into the woods. Then it turns out to just be a very large Newfoundland dog named Mouse with a haircut that would embarrass the fanciest of poodles.