Tuna (dog)

Tuna

Tuna, at a book signing in the UK in June 2015
Other name(s)	Wormy; Mr. Burns; Tooney
Species	Dog
Breed	Chihuahua Dachshund crossbreed
Sex	Male
Born	Abt. 2010
Nation from	United States
Notable role	Internet celebrity
Years active	2012 - present
www.tunameltsmyheart.com

Tuna is a Chihuahua Dachshund crossbreed dog, best known as an internet celebrity, and an internet meme. He was abandoned by his original owner near San Diego, and was adopted at a farmer's market in Los Angeles by Courtney Dasher. After she created an Instagram page for him, a photo of him was featured on the company's website resulting in an increase in followers. Dasher has used Tuna's celebrity status to raise money for animal rescue groups as well as promoting the cause generally. A book of photographs of Tuna was released in 2015, entitled Tuna Melts My Heart: The Underdog With The Overbite.

Tuna was found on a roadside near San Diego, California, having been abandoned by his original owner. He suffered emotional trauma from this abandonment, leading him to the habit of crawling on his belly; because of this, his rescuer called him "Wormy".

Tuna was taken to a farmer's market in Los Angeles by the rescue centre at the age of around four months, where Courtney Dasher saw him and adopted him. She decided to change his name from "Wormy" to "Mr. Burns" because of his resemblance to the character in The Simpsons. She had initially only intended to foster the dog, but after a week decided that she would keep him. Over time, he was called "Tooney" affectionately which eventually became "Tuna".

His internet career began in 2012 when Dasher created an Instagram page for him. She had no aspirations of turning Tuna into a celebrity, but his followers drastically increased after the company featured an image of him on their front page. He also gained exposure as an internet meme by the name of "Phteven" (Steven with a ph at the start), which was originally created on Reddit as a response to a user's story about a person in McDonald's misunderstanding his explanation of "Stephen". By 2015, he had 1.3 million followers on Instagram. His followers are global; while a large number comes from the United States, he also has a strong following in the UK, Sweden and Australia. Dasher has used this popularity to support the work of animal rescue groups, both by raising the general awareness of rescue animals and by generating funding for specific groups.