The Viral Ad ‘Haunted Victorian Child’ Dog Has Been Adopted
Following a brutally honest advertisement looking for someone to adopt him, Prancer the “neurotic, man hating, animal hating, children hating dog that looks like a gremlin” has found a new forever home.
The 2-year-old Chihuahua matt had been listed for adoption, after his original owner had spent several months attempting to create an advertisement to make him sound appealing, only to err on the side of complete honesty instead.
And whilst this advertisement does anything but make Prancer sound like a pleasant pet, the entertainingly sincere description captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of people across several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Prancer, whom his original owner describes as “literally the Chihuahua meme that describes them as being 50% hate and 50% tremble” among other things, has finally found himself a new, and hopefully final, forever home with Ariel Davies, a 36-year-old New Haven resident.
She bought Prancer home in mid-April and decided to build a new Instagram page (prancerthechihuahua) to celebrate Prancer in all his “demonic Chihuahua” glory. The first post to the new page for all things Prancer was captioned “On his way home!”, receiving almost 7,000 likes and over 150 comments.
Davies spoke with Today about her adoption of Prancer, and how it came about, saying “I read the article, I connected to it, and I was like, ‘You know what? Why not? I’ll just send them an email.” She followed this up with the famous last words, “what’s the worst that could happen?”
The original ad for Prancer was written by 25-year-old volunteer Tyfanee Fortuna. Fortuna is a volunteer for the New Jersey-based rescue Second Chance Pet Adoption League, which Fortuna then posted to Facebook.
Fortuna had been caring for Prancer for around six months at the time the ad was posted, venting her frustrations with the pup. During the time that Prancer had lived in her home, Fortuna had described it as being a time of being trapped “in the grips of [a] demonic Chihuahua hellscape”.
This is the best thing I’ve read in awhile. pic.twitter.com/rdn3X6GeWH
— Hot Little Mongoose (@HLMongoose) April 9, 2021
Whilst it may be that some pet ads can have a tendency to downplay any problematic behavioral patterns a pet may have, Fortuna showed no reservations in telling Pracer’s prospective owners exactly what to expect.
Prancer is summed up in a single sentence to describe his personality, with Fortuna saying that after being overjoyed to watch her previously shy rescue dog finally come out of his shell, that he is “more like a vessel for a traumatized Victorian child that now haunts [her family] home.”
She is also absolutely clear that Prancer can only be around women and that he “hates men more than women do”, joking that this says a lot about the level of hatred the pup has for the male sex. She goes on to explain that after six months of living with a man in the house, Prancer had still not accepted his presence.
Fortuna is extremely descriptive in her efforts to dissuade prospective owners from applying if they have other dogs or cats, stating that it would be a bad idea to apply unless said pets “like being shaken up like a ragdoll by a 13lb rage machine.”
The 1,100 word long essay of an advertisement does a deep dive into everything that his previous owner had lost her patience with, as well as listing the few good qualities she could find. According to the advert, he is “loyal beyond belief” as well as being housebroken, enjoying car rides (perfect for anyone traveling to adopt him), knowing some basic commands, being quiet, and being non-destructive if left home alone.
Additionally, she explained that even though they rather harshly nicknamed him “bologna face”, he is actually quite cute and that he is the type of dog to “smile” when he gets excited.
The advert finishes by explaining that the ideal future owner for him would have to be a purely female household, with their own land, as condos and apartments put the neighbors at risk of having their ankles bitten. She also advises that Prancer would need to be “put away like a vacuum” if his new owner has friends over.
The final line of the ad reads that Fortuna is aware that finding someone who wants “a chucky doll in a dogs body” would be difficult, but that she needed to try.
Ariel Davies, Prancer’s new pet mom, proudly told Today that she is a single lesbian woman, who lives with another woman, with no men in her life. She works in a women’s rehab facility and does not have any other pets, and so she felt Prancer would be the perfect fit for her home.
Fortuna posted on her Facebook the week following Prancer’s adoption to let people know that her family does, in fact, miss Prancer and that he was still loved despite his quirks. Ending her post on a familiar note, saying that “being relieved of the constant haunting of a Victorian child has [her] sleeping easier.”
