North Carolina Pug Believed to Be 1st Dog to Test Positive for Coronavirus in U.S.

Talk about “ruff!” A pug that lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is believed to be the first dog to test positive for coronavirus in the U.S. The pooch, named Winston, tested positive alongside three humans he lives with–the mom, dad and one son in the McLean family–while their one daughter tested negative, as did their cat and another dog. “Pugs are a little unusual in that they cough and sneeze in a very strange way,” mom Heather McLean says. “So it almost seems like he was gagging, and there was one day when he didn’t want to eat his breakfast, and if you know pugs, you know they love to eat, so that seemed very unusual.” Meanwhile, son Ben says Winston probably caught COVID-19 because he “licks all of our dinner plates and sleeps in my mom’s bed.”

A 17-year-old dog in Hong Kong was previously believed to have died from COVID-19, although that dog’s owner refused an autopsy to determine the cause of death.