For Diesel, a gray, three-legged dog and longtime resident of the Humane Educational Society in Chattanooga, a long wait came to a happy ending during the holiday season.
A family drove six hours from South Carolina to meet and adopt Diesel after seeing the dog in a video by the Humane Educational Society, media specialist Carley Wilkerson said in an email.
The video featured the shelter dogs picking their own Christmas gifts from a pile of donated toys.
Staff filmed as the shelter pups picked their favorite toy, and the video went viral after it was posted on social media. The video had more than 16 million views on Instagram, 14 million views on Facebook and more than 3 million views on TikTok as of Wednesday. It drew the attention of People magazine, which featured the video on its website.
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Chattanooga Humane Educational Society video of shelter dogs goes viral, leads to adoption
“We were thrilled to be able to provide this enrichment for the animals,” Wilkerson said. “In the season of giving, we wanted to give them a meaningful and fun moment to cherish. The fact that we could share that moment with the public is simply icing on the cake.”