A Photo of a Dog Is an Optical Illusion

By Hope Bidegainberry on February 17, 2020

Portrait of “Leo,” a 5 month old, male, gray and white Cattle Dog mix puppy. By using this photo, you are supporting the Amanda Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to helping homeless animals find permanent loving homes.

There is a photo of a perfectly normal dog that is going viral right now, because of an optical illusion that is making people think they are looking at anything BUT a perfectly normal dog.

When you see the photo, you know you’re looking at an animal . . . but you aren’t sure what it is. A baby goat? A white, hairy pig? A Chupacabra?

But it’s all an optical illusion. The dog’s ear looks like a mouth, and its mouth and nose look like an ear. So if you rotate the photo, you can see it’s just a dog lying on a bed looking up.

Still, it’s a GOOD optical illusion. Even after I’d seen what the dog actually looks like, my mind would go back and forth between “unidentifiable creature” and “dog.”