Prancer, a two-year-old Chihuahua whose faults were bluntly laid out in an ad from a New Jersey-based rescue, has been adopted. The frank/candid listing charmed casual observers and prospective owners alike. Other shelters and adoption centers looking to unload problematic pooches, um, take note.
The listing that was seen by an indeterminate (but large) amount of people earlier this month described Prancer as as “a Chucky doll in a dog’s body,” a “haunted Victorian child in the body of a small dog that hates men and children” and a “neurotic, man-hating, animal hating, children hating dogs that look[s] like [a gremlin],” amongst other things.
The 13-pound mutt, complete with all those terrible qualities (and more), was adopted by 36-year-old Connecticut resident Ariel Davis. Davis brought him home last week and already put up an Instagram account with enough early followers to make a wannabe influencer envious.
“I read the article, I connected to it, and I was like, ‘You know what? Why not? I’ll just send them an email. What’s the worst that could happen?’” said Davis in a Today interview accompanied by a truly extensive write-up.
The ad was penned by 25-year-old volunteer Tyfanee Fortuna for the Second Chance Pet Adoption League and was put up earlier this month in an ad on Facebook. It’s reported that Prancer had been cared for by Fortuna for six months by the time the listing hit the internet.
In a[nother] spot on Petfinder, Fortuna said that Prancer came to the agency “terrified, untouchable, and severely overweight” because his prior owner, described as an elderly woman, “treated him like a human.”
“I was excited to see him come out of his shell and become a real dog,” Fortuna continued. “I am convinced at this point he is not a real dog, but more like a vessel for a traumatized Victorian child that now haunts our home.”
Though the bad qualities are what got his name on the radar, Fortuna did have nice things to say about him. She said he was loyal, housebroken, and “kind of cute to look at.”
A viral screen-grab tweet of the Facebook post (below) garnered lots of attention, and the Adoption League was hit with several inquiries as a result:
Davis told Today that she came to the conclusion that she was a fit for Prancer because she doesn’t have anything in her life that will piss him off.
“I’m a single woman, I’m a single lesbian, I live with another woman, I don’t have any men in my life, I work in a women’s rehab, I don’t have any other animals. It just felt like a perfect match,” she said.
As for Fortuna, she provided an update last week that conveyed her gratitude.
“In closing, we do miss Prancer and he was loved here despite his quirks,” she said. “I have a lot of experience with toxic men, so it was easy for me to overlook his malicious tendencies and love him anyway. However, being relieved of the constant haunting of a Victorian child has me sleeping easier.”
