A picture of a dog laying on a sidewalk has gone viral after an optical illusion made it look like he has been decapitated.
The now-viral picture was shared to Reddit on Monday by Nathan Sievers from Baltimore, who uses the handle nathanddfd1234. The post now has over 51,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments.
Posted with the caption: "My dog laying down with his head on the curb... Looks like he's been decapitated," the picture shows the dog—a 2-year-old Husky and golden retriever mix called Bleuregard Q. Kazoo—laying with his head resting on the curb at an angle that looks like a floating head.
One commenter said: "I can't wrap my head around this one! Beautiful head, though," while another replied: "My brain legitimately could not process this at first."
One user pondered: "I think the dog is resting his head on edging which is higher than the sidewalk (maybe it's a pathway) so the body isn't visible because it's below head level."
Sievers told Newsweek: "The picture was honestly a fluke. We were hanging out at my friend's brewery and he was laying down on a concrete platform that has a ramp going downward. He rested his head on the ledge and laid down so when I took the picture all you could see what his head floating there."
Optical illusions, often also referred to as visual illusions, involve a visual deception due to the arrangement of objects, the impact of a light source, or other variables.
In an article for Scientific American, Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik said: "Visual illusions demonstrate the ways in which the brain can fail to re-create the physical world. By studying these failings, we can learn about the computational methods used by the brain to construct visual experience."
"I didn't even think much of it until I got back home later and realized how wild it looked," said Sievers.
For any users concerned about the dog after the slightly scary illusion, Sievers provided an update in another post: "I promise Bleuregard Q. Kazoo is very much alive... I put up a picture of him in r/lookatmydog if anyone wants to confirm." The picture shows Bleu the dog in full—including legs—confirming that he was in fact completely safe.
Another user said: "How to give Reddit a heart attack," causing Sievers to apologize: "I really didn't think it was THAT crazy (only mildly), but that seems to be the general concessions. Sorry everyone."
"I'm ecstatic about the post going viral," said Sievers: "Everyone always says I should've got Bleu into some sort of dog contest because of his interesting looks and appearance. I was just sharing it to show off my handsome dog and thought the picture was cool."
This isn't the only illusion to cause confusion online, last week a mirror illusion freaked out TikTok users in a viral video. Plus, back in 2021, the internet was baffled by a color-changing hat in another viral post.
