A tiny Yorkshire Terrier mix has become a major social media star, all down to his adorable haircut.
Five-year-old Yorkie mix Biggie, who was rescued from a kill shelter in 2021, took the internet by storm when his owner Jeff Cole showed him off to the world in a post that quickly went viral because the tiny animal was rocking a mullet haircut.
Cole took to TikTok on March 1 on his account @thevoicevendor, where he showed off Biggie's incredible mullet, holding him up and asking: "Who just got a haircut? Who just got a fresh new mullet?!"
Visibly overjoyed, Cole then lifts the pup into the air and declares: "Is it Biggie boy? Yay!"
The video then showed a snap of Biggie with his new look on full display, his fur neatly cut short apart from perfectly straight strands at the back of his head: the ultimate mullet.
TikTok users couldn't believe what they were seeing, and since being uploaded, Cole's video has been viewed 7.2 million times, with close to half a million likes.
There were puns galore in the comment section, with one user joking Biggie's hairstyle represented "business in the front, PAWTY in the back."
"What in the Tiger King is that?" one user laughed, and another said: "That boy just had his driver's license suspended."
"I don't like it, I love it," one user said. "OMG. A MUTTLET," another labeled it.
Speaking to Newsweek, voice actor and podcast producer Cole, 42, said he had initially made the viral video to send to his wife, Melissa, after a trip to the groomers' left Biggie "looking like a champ."
"He's been rocking the mullet for about two years. I used to have the same cut and Biggie thought we should match," Cole said. "We were twinsies for a while and people loved it! After a while I started to look like a creep so I cut mine but Biggie was not having it so he kept it."
Biggie is just as popular in real life as he is on social media, with Cole saying they "freak out when they see him, he's a star everywhere we go."
"He's super vocal and has an amazing personality which only adds to his awesomeness! And way smarter than his dad," Cole laughed.
Cole, who lives in Canada, added that Biggie's video going viral was a "total surprise" as he had rarely used TikTok in the past, but "almost instantly it started to trend," going from a few thousand hits to a few million in just a couple of days, and then started to again a huge following on Instagram.
He described the sudden viral fame as "very overwhelming but super exciting," adding that "Biggie loves the attention."
"The best part is seeing so much pawsitivity from people everywhere! In a time where negativity and hatred are rampant online, it's so refreshing to see the good in people shine," he said.
Cole adopted Biggie and his sister Mira from a kill shelter in Texas, and both dogs are now both living their lives as adored family pets.
According to a report from OneVet, over 355,000 dogs and cats were killed in shelters across the United States "due to overcrowding and limited resources," not counting the estimated 10 percent of animals humanely euthanized for behavioral or medical problems.
It reports that Texas was among the top 10 states with the highest rate of kill shelters, at 10.3 percent of their overall shelters. And the state clinched the top spot for the number of animals killed in a given year, with 61,245 at the time the report was made.
Cole urged anyone considering getting a dog to "look to shelters and rescue organizations before buying."
"There are so many amazing abandoned animals who deserve a loving home," he said. "Biggie is a great example and an ambassador for adopting over shopping."
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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