There are a few things you really should know about Tuna, the 'Chiweenie' dog (that's a Chihuahua-Dachsund mix) owned by Courtney Dasher, a Mayfield Heights native.
Tuna has an overbite.
Tuna has a following.
And Tuna has a manager.
The overbite, in a way, led to the following. Tuna is a rescue dog and Dasher adopted him after encountering him in a farmer's market in Los Angeles, where she now lives. The dog had been abandoned on a street corner. But for Dasher, it was love at first overbite.
The dog is oddly cute. He's got a Montgomery Burns from 'The Simpsons' kind of quality with his jagged teeth and wrinkly neck. He's cartoonish. In fact, 'Tuna' is an offshoot of 'Cartoony.'
He's such a natural in front of the camera that Dasher began posting a picture of Tuna each day on Instagram @tunameltsmyheart after she signed up for an account in late 2011. In 2012, after a picture was posted on the Reddit website and then featured by Instagram on its home page, Tuna took off.
The dog now has 766,600 Instagram followers, an adoring mass that grows by 1,000 people a day. 'I never expected this,' said Dasher. The following includes Cesar Milan, the 'Dog Whisperer' on National Geographic's Nat GEO Wild network. The tunameltsmyheart.com website is popular, too, and other social media avenues are growing.
He's been featured on websites such as Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Mashable. He's been written up in newspapers overseas. And he even made an appearance on NBC's 'Today Show.'
And that leads us to the business manager.
Tuna is on tour this month - 'The Tuna Tour, presented by Barkbox' -- traveling to eight cities to see his adoring fans and to raise money for local animal shelters. There will be long lines and lots of questions. And Dasher is ready for them.
Tuna, she says, is an 'Underdog with an Overbite.' He melts not just her heart, but so many of the people who see him. 'He just makes people feel good,' she said.
Team Tuna consists of Dasher, the owner and social media maven, and 'auntie/manager' Kara Dykert, Dasher's friend.
The tour started in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday, then Chicago Saturday. He's in Cleveland from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Cleveland Animal Protective League shelter, 1729 Wiley Ave. (Parking limited; they suggest carpooling.) Then there are stops in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Nashville.
'It's definitely an unreal experience,' said Dasher, 32, a Mayfield Heights High grad who studied advertising at Kent State and now works as an interior designer in Los Angeles. 'I had no idea when I started posting those photos that he'd get this big.'
So she is capitalizing by using Tuna's celebrity to spread the message about the importance of animal rescue. The meet and greets are free, but people are encouraged to donate to the animal shelter. And for every subscription to the monthly Barkbox gift service, the company will donate $15 to the shelter.
Tuna is Dasher's first dog and she's head-over-heels for him.
'He has probably one of the best personalities I've ever seen. He's human-like. I swear he understands the human language. He's very loyal to me. He loves people, he loves most animals. He's endearing, he's sweet, he's charming. He's a good one.'
She's not quite sure what to expect at the Cleveland stop. But the crowd is likely to be big.
In February, she was visiting Cleveland for her grandmother's 90 th birthday and at the last minute called the Petco store in Beachwood to ask if they'd host Tuna in case some local fans wanted to come in and take pictures. The store agreed.
'I announced it at 7 p.m. on a Saturday and the next day was Super Bowl Sunday and we had 250 people there,' she said.
A star on Super Bowl Sunday? Tuna doesn't need a manager, he needs an agent.
Tidak ada komentar :
Posting Komentar