A Nashville animal shelter volunteer is showcasing dogs and increasing adoptions with viral TikToks featuring goofy fake breed names https://t.co/qw1XvQALea
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 22, 2025
It’s Monday, there’s no doubt gonna be another non-stop shower of bad news and stupidity, so let’s start the week with something goofy and inspirational instead. Kudos to shelter volunteer / photographer Adrian Budnick! Per the Associated Press, “Viral videos of dogs called a ‘Himalayan fur goblin’ and ‘teacup werewolf’ boost adoptions”:
For over a decade, Adrian Budnick has taken adoption photos of the dogs at Nashville’s county animal shelter, but it wasn’t until the COVID pandemic that an idea came to her.
As one of only a few people allowed to visit in-person, she could take videos of dogs, inventing humorous nicknames and capturing their individual personalities, for an audience of potential adopters.
First came her TikToks playing the persona of Anita Walker, a fast-talking, cowboy boot-wearing purveyor of certified pre-owned pets. Then she struck gold with the “What’s this then?” series — short videos featuring goofy dog names that drew in viewers and boosted adoptions.
“It was kind of just on a whim,” Budnick said. “We had this — I’m assuming it was like a poodle-doodle situation, and he was really big and lanky.”
People often assume the shelter doesn’t have fluffy dogs, so Budnick adopted what she calls her “Karen” voice — slightly bored and complaining — when she looked into the camera to say: “The shelter only has pit bulls.”
“And then I held up this giant curly dog with legs and the tongue hanging out. And I was like, ‘What’s this then?’”
She called it a “Himalayan fur goblin.”
The video “exploded over night,” Budnick said. So much so that she went back the next day to make another one “because I’m like, I can’t let this go.”
Since then she has promoted the adoption of such imaginative dog breeds as the “Teacup werewolf” and the “Speckled freckled cuddle calf.” Then there’s the “French baguette long lady” and the “Creamsicle push-up pup.”
The shelter does get its share of pit bull mixes. A December video featuring several of them in festive costumes with Budnick singing “I Want a Pitt-o-potomous for Christmas” has been viewed more than 5 million times.
Adoptions got a boost
While it is gratifying to gain visibility, Budnick said, the real payoff is in the adoptions. Data provided by the shelter shows dog adoptions increased by just over 25% between 2021 and 2024.
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