ASCHAE’s DogBlog

Source: DailyNews.com, July 19, 2009

How much is that five-legged doggy in the window?

$4,000.

A kind-hearted North Carolina woman outbid a Coney Island freak show operator to buy a five-legged puppy last week, saving the 6-week-old dog from a life of humiliation.

Allyson Siegel, 45, of Charlotte, N.C., was stunned to learn that little Precious, a Chihuahua-terrier mix, was bound for a Brooklyn freak show, so she called the dog’s owner, Calvin Owensby, and offered him more bones.

“I called Calvin and I said, ‘I understand this is about money,’ and I just said, ‘How much,’” Siegel told the Daily News yesterday.

“She is beautiful, she’s not a freak, she’s a normal little puppy dog and she should be just like all the others,” Siegel said.

Precious was born with a fifth leg protruding from her stomach, between her hind legs. The extra leg has six toes.

John Strong, the freak show proprietor in Coney Island, had already offered Owensby $3,000 and sent a $1,000 down payment, but Siegel convinced him to back out and sell her the puppy for $4,000.

“[Precious] wasn’t a freak, she was just a dog born with five legs,” Owensby told the Daily News. “My girlfriend decided she didn’t want to see her in a freak show.”

“Strong told us it was an amazing animal farm,” Owensby said. “I don’t think a dog should go to a freak show.”

Strong invited Owensby to visit his “Freaks of Nature” museum on Surf Ave. to prove that he treats all the animals with respect – including the two-headed cow, Nosey Rosey, and the Siamese turtles, Pete and Repeat – but Owensby refused.

“I told him it was an amazing animal show with freaks and oddities,” Strong told The News. “I told him the puppy was very rare, but someone offered him more money.”

Siegel renamed the puppy Lilly and scheduled a surgery to remove the dog’s extra appendage this month.

“I saw her and she’s so adorable and I felt like I needed to be an advocate for her because she can’t speak,” she said. “It just broke my heart,” she added. “I needed to see if there was something I could do.”

Strong first called Owensby early this month and said he wanted to buy the dog. Owensby was laid off in December and hasn’t found a new job. He was sad to part with the puppy, but needed the cash, he said.

When asked if $4,000 seemed like too high a price for a deformed dog, Siegel said: “I just knew I wanted to get the puppy and make sure she had a good life.”