Himalayan Fur Goblins – The Weird Side of the Internet

Himalayan Fur Goblins – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

When I was a kid, I loved animals. I still do, but now I get to hate scooping poop and changing litter boxes and the price of the good food the shelter was feeding her, because it was her food and why mess with a proven winner, right? And speaking of shelters, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an animal bigger than a guinea pig anywhere but my local shelter. Nothing admirable; I grew up broke and that was the cheapest place to get a dog or a cat. But I was at the shelter all the time when I was a kid. I can even remember some of the dogs I couldn’t get because our landlord said no.

So it warmed my heart to find out about Adrian Budnick, an animal shelter volunteer and photographer, who has gone viral for her methods in shining a light (or rather, a flash) on the dogs up for adoption. Her opus, so far? The “Himalayan Fur Goblin.”

The thing about breeds, when it comes to shelters, is that they’re arbitrary and they don’t matter. If you’re a breeder, or entering into dog shows, then pedigree is principal. But when you’re just finding a happy home for stray pups, who the hell cares? “Himalayan Fur Goblin,” “Teacup werewolf,” “Speckled freckled cuddle calf,” might as well be breeds if it makes people want to go to the shelter and get a furry boi.

So Adrian Burdick has whipped up a great TikTok following, and her “breeds” have gone viral. Her shelter has seen a 25% increase in adoptions.

I imagine this is helpful with pit mixes, because so many people buy pit bulls thinking that they’re going to be vicious guard dogs, and then they find out that pits are just as likely to be lovers as they are fighters. So they end up disproportionately represented in shelters. And since they end up always being mixes, why the hell not change the breed to a “Creamsicle push-up pup.”?

I’m changing my cat’s breed to “Dusty orange-speckled keyboard stomper.”

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