Squirrel's Journey From Abandoned Puppy to Instagram Sensation

Squirrel's Journey From Abandoned Puppy to Instagram Sensation
Squirrel, a miniature schnauzer mix puppy, was left abandoned on the streets of South Korea until she was rescued and taken to a shelter in 2019. Later that year, she was flown across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles and adopted. However, her first adopters returned her within a week, stating that she was too afraid.
Despite this setback, Squirrel's journey was only beginning, and her story of resilience and love is one that continues to touch hearts on Instagram.

Squirrel's luck took a turn for the better when a kind foster family took her in.
"She was just so cute and I thought she was such a little character," owner Erin Pfeifer recalls of seeing the puppy for the first time.
She says "Squirrel" was originally a nickname for the dog, who was named "Chrissy" by the rescue.

"I started calling her Squirrel because when she would play she was so bouncy, and tiny and it was just hilarious," Pfeifer says. "I thought she looked like a little squirrel when she played and so started calling her Squirrel as a nickname and then kind of just created the Instagram as a way to introduce her to the world and try to spread the message that she needed a home."
Pfeifer started Squirrel's Instagram account as a way to help her get adopted. Obviously, that effort fell short, leading this "foster failure" to a beautiful new friendship.

"After a few months, I just knew I couldn't let her go," Pfeifer says. "She was mine."
Squirrel was just 4 pounds when Pfeifer first took her in.
"When I first started fostering Squirrel, she was really nervous. She was scared of everything. It was hard to even get close to pet her because she was just so scared," Pfeifer says. "She had been flown here from South Korea when she was just a tiny little baby, and I'm sure that was really scary for her.

With the love and support of her new human and doggy siblings, Squirrel is thriving in her new forever home.
"It took a few months for her to really start to come out of her shell. I don't think that we would have been as successful if I didn't have my my other dogs at the time," Pfeifer says." I think having my other older, more confident dogs in the house already was really beneficial to her experience. They helped her to realize that she was in a safe place and that she could just act like a puppy."
Matthew Russell

Matthew Russell is a West Michigan native and with a background in journalism, data analysis, cartography and design thinking. He likes to learn new things and solve old problems whenever possible, and enjoys bicycling, spending time with his daughters, and coffee.

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