The viral TikTok dog who stole the internet's heart is now ready for adoption
As the owner of (objectively speaking) the world's greatest dog, I'm never further than a few swipes on TikTok from a good cry. That's because my algorithm is dog-centric and it feeds me both sad — please avoid those — and heartwarming stories about pups.
The latest and greatest such saga is that of Tiki, the viral foster dog who was rescued from pretty dire straits. And you better have your tear ducts ready for his heartwarming tale.
Isabel Klee or @SimonSits on TikTok, who we've previously featured as one of our favorite animal accounts, has told Tiki's touching story on her account. Klee has shown the pretty amazing journey of Tiki from "an extremely fearful, shut-down foster dog" to a pup that will cuddle, trust humans, and be ready for adoption.
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Klee has documented the journey day-by-day and it has taken the internet by storm, with videos racking up millions and millions of views. TikTok's own account commented that "watching Tiki's progress every day has been the hopecore content we all needed."
What's made this story especially heartwarming is Klee's honesty about the foster process and the tough road Tiki faced. From Day 1, she was clear with her viewers that Tiki came from an awful situation.
"Tiki didn't have a very good life. We don't know a ton about the first five years of it, but it wasn't very good," she narrates in one video. "Tiki came into the ASPCA with a number of dogs, all of them terrified of the world they've been brought into."
In that video, you can see Tiki, face missing fur, scared, shaking, and seemingly resigned to that life. Klee was even open about the fact that behavioral euthanasia — where a dog is put down because it is unable to recover — could be the potential, most humane outcome. From that darkness, Tiki emerged as a new dog. (Mashable has reached out to Klee for comment and will update this story if we hear back.)
Just look at the little guy now, playing, trusting, and now apparently receiving more than 100 adoption applications in just one hour. This is the same pup that could hardly be around people at all, let alone accept affection.
It is a wonderful story and the kind of heartwarming thing you don't often see on the internet. And people have truly fallen in love with Tiki. And, to Klee's credit, she's used that fact for even more good. In the wake of the virality, she sold "Be Brave Like Tiki" shirts — with all proceeds going to Muddy Paws Rescue — and raised more than $100,000, requiring a full re-stock of the merch.
So, while Klee has obviously done a lot of good for Tiki, now Tiki has done a lot of good for other dogs.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
