They swore on the forums, and said some death threats. No, Renio's behavior isn't really normal. Renio has a very bad home life. I'm pretty sure there's some abuse going on too, but not really anything definitive.
Yeah getting familliars while gathering is pretty rare, but it happens. I just watnted the name so I could buy it, since it'd take months for me to find it while gathering.
I'm surprised you haven't seen them before. There was a really well known pair of dogs, a few years back, that didn't have their front legs. It is really adorable though.
I mean some dogs are able to walk on their back legs, when they don't have their front legs. In the wild they probably wouldn't survive, but it might be that nichelings are able to walk on their back legs naturally.
A video of a dog without their front legs.