Bertram The Pomeranian pulls the look off with aplomb.
A dog has already won Halloween 2018 after his specially-made costume arrived early and he tried it on.
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Bertram The Pomeranian looks so good as Paddington Bear – complete with his red hat and blue coat – that it’s hard to remember he’s a dog.
Bertie’s picture was shared on his own Instagram account by his owner Kathy Grayson and it was later shared and reposted on other social media accounts with messages of joy at discovering his picture.
He lives in New York after being rehomed from a shelter in Oklahoma. He was originally called Jasper, but Kathy, who owns an art gallery, opted to rename him in honour of Bertie Wooster from PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves And Wooster novels.
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“I called him ‘Puppy Bear’ for months until I settled on a name, Bertie,” Kathy told the Press Association.
“By the time his adult fur grew in and he was fully grown, it was obvious that Bertie was the cutest guy in the world. People would stop us on the street all the time, and in NYC people usually don’t do that too much, so the power was real.
“I had to create his own Instagram page for him because my art gallery page has to post paintings and sell art, and people just wanted to see Bert.
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“For these few years people would comment that Bert looks like Paddington, so after finally watching those movies I gave in and bought him a little Paddington Bear costume.”
Kathy purchased the outfit from a woman in the UK via Etsy.
“It fit him perfectly,” she added. “Now I just need a little suitcase and some galoshes and I will really have a bear on my hands here.”
Despite looking like the Marmalade-loving bear and the epitome of cuteness, Kathy says Bertie’s personality is his best attribute.
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“He is so calm and chill; he is just a funny, thoughtful, alert little friend. He doesn’t bite, almost never barks, he just stares and stares and smiles and romps.”
Bertie, now five, wears bow ties when he joins Kathy at work events in a nod to his namesake, enjoys swimming and playing in the dog pool and even eats cheese.
“At all times of day, having Bert with me is just a constant joy, I feel grateful every day, multiple times a day, to have this wonderful being here with me.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For over a decade, Adrian Budnick has taken adoption photos of the dogs at Nashville's county animal shelter, but it wasn't until the COVID pandemic that an idea came to her.
As one of only a few people allowed to visit in-person, she could take videos of dogs, inventing humorous nicknames and capturing their individual personalities, for an audience of potential adopters.
First came her TikToks playing the persona of Anita Walker, a fast-talking, cowboy boot-wearing purveyor of certified pre-owned pets. Then she struck gold with the “What's this then?” series — short videos featuring goofy dog names that drew in viewers and boosted adoptions.
“It was kind of just on a whim,” Budnick said. “We had this — I’m assuming it was like a poodle-doodle situation, and he was really big and lanky."
People often assume the shelter doesn't have fluffy dogs, so Budnick adopted what she calls her “Karen” voice — slightly bored and complaining — when she looked into the camera to say: “The shelter only has pit bulls.”
“And then I held up this giant curly dog with legs and the tongue hanging out. And I was like, ‘What’s this then?'"
She called it a "Himalayan fur goblin."
The video “exploded over night,” Budnick said. So much so that she went back the next day to make another one “because I’m like, I can’t let this go.”
Since then she has promoted the adoption of such imaginative dog breeds as the “Teacup werewolf” and the “Speckled freckled cuddle calf.” Then there's the “French baguette long lady” and the “Creamsicle push-up pup.”
The shelter does get its share of pit bull mixes. A December video featuring several of them in festive costumes with Budnick singing “I Want a Pitt-o-potomous for Christmas” has been viewed more than 5 million times.
While it is gratifying to gain visibility, Budnick said, the real payoff is in the adoptions. Data provided by the shelter shows dog adoptions increased by just over 25% between 2021 and 2024.
“We’ll get calls from all over. And it’s not just local here to Tennessee even," said Metro Animal Care and Control Director Ashley Harrington. “We’ve had an adopter from Canada. We’ve had ones from states all over."
She said people often call asking about a specific, made-up dog breed from one of the videos. "It’s been pretty great, and it’s been fun for our staff."
The popularity of Budnick's videos have also led to donations of both money and supplies. Letters to the shelter referencing her videos are taped to a wall in the volunteer room.
Still, like many other shelters in the South, it's overcrowded.
Budnick has one thing to say about that situation: “Spay and neuter, spay and neuter, spay and neuter.”
Budnick started taking photos as a kid. While on camping trips, she'd take nature pictures with a 35 mm Canon AE-1. In high school she took photography classes and learned to make her own prints in a darkroom. But eventually she stopped taking pictures.
That changed when she adopted a dog.
“When I got Ruby, my 13-year-old, she was five weeks old, and I started taking pictures of her," she said. A few months later, Budnick adopted Ruby's sister, and a few months after that she began as a volunteer photographer at the shelter. "So really, my dogs got me back into it.”
With her photos and videos, Budnick fights against the stigma that the shelter is a sad place with dogs no one would want. In many of the videos, she holds even the large dogs in her arms and gets her face licked.
“You see them running around in the videos when they’re in playgroup, and you see them cuddling, and you see their goofy smiles when I’m holding them, and it just really showcases them," she said.
Budnick's success has been noticed. She loves it when other shelters copy her ideas, or even lip sync over her videos while showing their own dogs, but she's not interested in taking on more work. She has a regular job in addition to volunteering for the shelter between 7-10 hours each week, but she doesn't mind the long hours.
“I’m just having fun,” she said. "I absolutely love dogs. I think they’re the best thing on earth.”
Volunteer Adrian Budnick spends time with a dog at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Volunteer Adrian Budnick returns a dog to its kennel at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A dog looks out from a kennel at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Volunteer Adrian Budnick poses with a dog outside the Metro Animal Care and Control, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Adrian Budnick wears a sweatshirt while volunteering at Metro Animal Care and Control, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Volunteer Adrian Budnick makes a video for social media with a dog at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Volunteer Adrian Budnick takes a picture of a dog at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Adrian Budnick displays a photo of a dog on her phone at the Metro Animal Care and Control office Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Volunteer Adrian Bucnick spends time with a dog at the Metro Animal Care and Control facility Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)