(July 20) -- A North Carolina woman saved a five-legged puppy from life in a freak show, but it came at a steep cost.
Allyson Siegel paid a cool $4,000 for a six-week-old Chihuahua-terrier mix, after hearing the dog's owner was selling her to a Coney Island freak show operator, the New York Daily News reported.
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The puppy, whom Siegel renamed "Lilly" from the original "Precious," was born with a fifth appendage growing out of her abdomen between her two hind legs. Her original owner, Calvin Owensby, decided to sell the pup because he's been out of work since December.
John Strong, owner of the "Freaks of Nature" museum in Coney Island, offered Owensby $3,000 in early July to add Precious to his collection. Siegel countered with an extra $1,000.
"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," Siegel said. "It just broke my heart. I needed to see if there was something I could do."
Owensby told the Daily News that Strong had told him he ran an amazing animal farm, not a freak show. "I don't think a dog should go to a freak show," Owensby said, and added that his girlfriend agreed, prompting him to take Siegel's counteroffer.
"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. She has scheduled surgery to remove Lilly's extra leg later this month.
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Rare Sightings
Fareeda, an endangered white Bengal tiger, was born without stripes. The six-month-old cub is the only one of her kind in the wild today and one of only 20 in captivity. The odds of her not having markings were 100 to one. Flip through this gallery for a look at other sightings of some rare animals.
Kerry Hardy, Caters News / ZUMA Press
Kerry Hardy, Caters News / ZUMA Press
