Things to Do

Meet Instagram-famous dog ‘Tuna Melts My Heart’ in Cobb this weekend

Here's a photo from a Tuna Melts My Heart post on Instagram encouraging people to come to a meet-and-greet with him at a Smyrna animal shelter.
Here's a photo from a Tuna Melts My Heart post on Instagram encouraging people to come to a meet-and-greet with him at a Smyrna animal shelter.
By Ben Brasch
Dec 16, 2016

If you don't already have plans to meet an Instagram-famous dog this weekend, you're in luck.

Head to Best Friends-Atlanta in Smyrna on Saturday and meet Tuna Melts My Heart.

Tuna is a chiweenie — that'd be a mix of Chihuahua and dachshund — with an overbite and more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

He'll be at the shelter, 4874 S. Atlanta Road, for an hour starting at noon at its "SanTuna Claus Meet and Greet" event.

Meet Tuna, or Tuna Melts My Heart. Tuna has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.
Meet Tuna, or Tuna Melts My Heart. Tuna has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

His Instagram post encouraging attendance at the Christmas-themed event garnered about 32,000 likes and nearly 480 comments in a day.

In addition to filling the Internet with cuteness, he also has a book with a tagline of "The Underdog with the Overbite."

Courtney Dasher is Tuna’s owner — though she signs her emails “Tuna's mom :)” — and works as an interior designer in Los Angeles.

Courtney Dasher (left) poses with Tuna Melts My Heart (right) for a photo by Gerrard Gethings courtesy of Dasher. Tuna has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.
Courtney Dasher (left) poses with Tuna Melts My Heart (right) for a photo by Gerrard Gethings courtesy of Dasher. Tuna has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram.

Before that, she lived in Atlanta doing interior design work from 2005 to 2009, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She mostly stuck to Midtown but lived in Brookhaven before she left for L.A. where she met Tuna six years ago this week.

Dasher recently had an interview with Cosmopolitan explaining how she created and curates Tuna's brand.

Dasher asked the AJC to tell folks to bring tangible gifts for the shelter dogs like toys, pet beds, collars along with anything else on the shelter's wishlist.

Oh, and though it’s free to get into the event, there will be 2017 Tuna calendars on sale for $20 cash with a portion of the proceeds going to Best Friends-Atlanta.

So if one new overbitten beauty shot a day on Instagram isn’t enough for you, snag a calendar.

About the Author

Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.

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