Most people love cute animals. It’s an unwritten internet law that no one ever questions—especially when presented with the cutest cat memes and puppy pics!
Many people are also big fans of the Star Wars franchise. Even those who have never seen the movies are aware of one meme that took the internet by storm just a few years back and has stayed popular ever since. That’s right, you guessed it, it's no other than Baby Yoda, yep!
What if we told you that we found someone who can tick both boxes? Combine a cute cuddly puppy and Star Wars... and you get Dixie! Here's a doggy that people can’t help but compare to Baby Yoda. Why, you might be thinking? While it’s not the pea-green, black-eyed creature Mandalorian fans have come to love, Dixie’s real highlight is the proportion of her ears. It’s all thanks to those fluffy ears that are way too big for her head that had people pointing out the similarities! All we can say, without a doubt, is that those are right on!
Of course, to find out a little bit more about the dog that took over the internet, Bored Panda reached out to Dixie’s owner Danielle.
More info: Instagram | tiktok.com
Recently a video featuring Dixie vent viral on TikTok and Instagram—the main reason being her ears that she apparently just didn’t grow into
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
How and when did Dixie become a part of your life? is there a story behind that?
"I got Dixie summer of 2009. she was 6 months old when she became part of my family. I was 13 at the time she has a whole story, I will attach it at the bottom of the page, but in short, she was living outside at a friend of my brothers, the landlord told them to get rid of her as they were not caring for her properly so he brought her home to live with us, she came with the name Dixie. my parents were hoping a dog would teach us responsibility and she and I quickly became best friends."
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
What's Dixie's personality like? what makes her who she is?
"Dixie has a very strong personality. she is stubborn, sassy, and persistent. If she doesn't want to do something she isn't going to do it, but that is what gives her all her charm! I was always told she was 1/2 GSD 1/2 bloodhound which I 100% believe, however she has never been DNA tested. she is very lazy, she has a high prey drive, she loves food, and has a very expressive face and ears (obviously) with very sweet soulful eyes. she demands pets and butt scratches but she will get up and leave if you try to snuggle her."
It didn’t take long before people dug up similarities between the little green creature (aka Baby Yoda) from the Mandalorian and the 12-year-old mutt whose ears make her Baby Yoda’s lookalike
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
We noticed you have other dogs too, are they rescues as well? Can you tell us about them?
"Yes! I have three dogs in total, all rescues! Dixie came first, she is 12 years old. Muta is 2nd, she's a 2-year-old pit mix and Alfalfa came last, he is a 4-year-old Chocolate Lab.
Muta, pronounced (moo-tah) but more commonly known as Moo is a 2-year-old pittie, I adopted her at 3 months old,I found her on the side of the road while walking Dixie, she came right up to us and followed us home. she wasn't microchipped and was in rough shape. She had a respiratory infection and was really skinny. my boyfriend, Dorrion, is the one that named her. He is Filipino and Muta is the Tagalog word for "eye boogers" it started as a joke when we would clean her boogies out if her eyes we would say "muta" over and over while we cleaned her face and it just kind of stuck. She is a wonderful dog. super sweet with all dogs and people. she even does agility and knows A TON of tricks.
Alfalfa is a 4-year-old chocolate lab. he is more commonly known as Alfie. I adopted him in the summer of 2020. I am a dog trainer and pre covid I worked for a company that did a live rescue animal show that was contracted in different theme parks around the country, when covid happened all the contracts were canceled and the company closed. He was my favorite dog from the show and I brought him home to be part of the family! He is also a wonderful dog! we go hiking and swimming together."
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
Does Dixie get along with the other dogs in your family?
"Yes, she does! She is the most bonded to Moo. they are in love with each other, she cleans her face and they cuddle together, they wrestle and play too. Dixie likes Alfie too but is nowhere near as bonded to him as to Moo. Dixie and Alfie just sorta coexist. Dixie also has a brother named Skynyrd who lives in VA, where we are from, but she hasn't seen him in a few years."
How did you come up with the idea for a TikTok and Instagram for your dogs?
"I made Dixie an Instagram in 2017 just as a place to share photos of her and follow other dog accounts, I got the inspiration from the page Dogs of Instagram, I thought it would be really cool to get her on their page. Then once I got Muta I made her one too, then Alfalfa. Honestly, if I would've known I was going to end up with three dogs I would have just made one account for the three to share.
My best friend, Delaney, is the one who convinced me to get a Tiktok. I hadn't ever been on the app before October of 2020 and when I went to visit her she kept telling me I should make one. 6 months later and we have 100k followers."
And we can definitely see the resemblance. Dixie is so popular that she already has over 100K followers on TikTok thanks to the video that went viral recently
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
How did you feel when Dixie went viral on social media?
"Honestly, I thought my app was glitching at first, I made a video of a trend and then posted it and when to bed. my phone kept vibrating on my nightstand and I thought something was wrong, but it wasn't! It was her Tiktok blowing up. I felt like a little kid at Disney World. not so much for the popularity for me, but because so many people loved her! It makes me so happy to see people loving my dogs as much as I do. I want to keep growing as much as possible. Our goal is 1 million followers and to be verified. I would also LOVE to have Dixie be a model on products or a billboard or commercials or something, we have dreams as big as her ears, but we are also humble and happy and grateful that we have made it this far."
Do you have any funny stories to share about Dixie or your other dogs?
"I have lots of stories, like when Dixie was a puppy, she was a NIGHTMARE. she was really destructive and super crazy. she would destroy our house, chew through walls, eat the couch, etc. we crate trained her though which fixed the problem for when we weren't home. Alfie broke the sprinkler system at our condominium, they were testing the sprinklers and he LOVES water. I was letting him play in the sprinklers and when they turned them off, he bit the sprinkler head, breaking it, and water was gushing EVERYWHERE they had to call the company to shut off the water at our complex to fix it. oops. Moo is a plant murderer. I can't have any sort of plants. she has a vendetta against them and thinks they all must die. she will pull them out of their pots and shake them, flinging dirt EVERYWHERE."
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
What's your favorite thing about Dixie?
"Honestly, I like everything. she is my best friend, she and I have grown up together. I was 13 when we got her, I am 25 now, we have gone through so much together, so many different stages of life. Her ears are awesome but her eyes really get me. she is older now and she is starting to slow down but she is still always up for anything, even if it takes her a little longer, or she tires out a little faster, she is always down to do anything and everything."
How do you feel about the whole "this dog looks like baby Yoda" thing?
"I think it is so funny! I always forget how big her ears actually are compared to the rest of the dogs on earth. I think it's so funny what people come up with in relation to her ears. we get the flying nun a lot, scooby doo, charlie from all dogs go to heaven, dobby, and mogwai from the gremlins. Also, the comments we get make me die! "that dog can hear your thoughts" "does she fly" that's not a dog it's an airplane" The comments people come up with are so funny! We love reading them!
Dixie is the love of my life and I am so thankful I am getting the chance to share her with the rest of the world. her unique ears have earned the hearts of many and we cannot wait to continue to share them with the world.
“Dixie Doo was a stray and my brother brought her home. It’s super fun to have a dog with giant ears," Danielle told Bored Panda
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
Danielle also shared the story of Dixie's life that was written by the coffee company muttscoffee.
It’s undeniable what the first thing is that people notice about Dixie Doo. Her Ears. Charlie from All Dogs Go to Heaven, Gizmo from the Gremlins, Yoda from Star Wars, Scooby Doo, pertrille from the Flying Nun… these are just a few from a long list of comparisons that people will say that Dixie Doo’s ears remind them of.
And having a dog with remarkable ears is bound to win over the hearts of many on social media. Dixie Doo, who has her very own PO box to keep up with her fan mail and has become an internet sensation in recent months on platforms like Instagram and TikTok where her videos have been watched over 6 million times. A recent letter from a fan reads, “Greetings from Portland! Thank you for sharing your dog’s lives with us! Our sweet boy died in June. It’s been tough but following dogs on Instagram has been comforting. Dixie, we can’t wait ‘til you take flight" and included in the letter is a beautiful black and white hand drawing of Dixie.
But behind those larger-than-life ears and a remarkable smile, is a dog who has touched the hearts of her family for the last 12 years. A dog that can pull off a pretty dramatic “play dead” trick; a dog that likes to sneak bits of POP-TART crust, her absolute favorite treat, from her owner Danielle; a dog who is pretty low key most of the time and enjoys long naps on her dog bed; and a dog who shares her space with a few other rescues: Muta, a 2-year-old rescue pitbull and Alfie, a 4-year-old chocolate lab.
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
But Dixie is more than a dog with incredulous ears, she is also a fighter.
Her story began 12 years ago on a cold January winter night, somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia on a farm, where her mother gave birth to a litter of puppies. Not a whole lot is known about the conditions of that night but one thing we do know is that Dixie Doo was the only puppy to have survived the cold: her littermates had all succumbed to the elements. We also know that Dixie Doo’s mom was a german shepherd and that her dad was a bloodhound.
Dixie Doo ended up being taken by a friend of the family around 6 months of age but after a few days, that friend had a change of heart about keeping Dixie Doo and handed her over to Danielle’s brother who was a teenager at the time. Danielle’s brother snuck Dixie Doo into the family home in the middle of the night and a few hours later, Danielle remembers being woken up to the question of, “Danielle, what’s in the living room?” by her father. Full of excitement, 13-year-old Danielle ran out of her bedroom and into the living room where she laid eyes on Dixie Doo for the first time. "Dad, that’s a dog. Can we keep her?" she asked.
"We love brightening people’s day. I always forget how big they actually are, I’m so used to it, but everyone always reminds me"
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
And as these things sometimes go, one parent is on board with the new, sudden addition to the family, while the other remains ambivalent. And when you have teenagers, that place of apprehension is a place of knowing that you yourself will have to walk the dog, feed the dog, and care for the dog when the “jazz” of a new dog eventually wears off and the teenagers go back to their normal, teenage lives. So for mom, it was a hard “no.”
But Danielle was determined to change her mom’s mind. Dixie Doo had come with the name “Dixie” and Danielle’s mom took a liking to the name so Danielle’s logic was that if her mom got to decide on the name, she would eventually come around to the idea of keeping the dog. And she did. Danielle’s mom eventually turned that hard “no” to a soft “yes” and it was official, Dixie was now a member of Danielle’s family. The “doo” part of Dixie’s name came later on as a reference to the beloved cartoon character Scooby-Doo, and Danielle says that on most days, she calls her “Doo” more than ‘Dixie.
Danielle is now 25 and has a little family of her own which Dixie Doo is the most senior member of. She says that Dixie has changed her life, not only because Dixie was her first dog and her first major responsibility, but also that Dixie’s gentle demeanor and friendliness towards everyone she meets is a model of behavior that Danielle herself tries to strive for.
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
Recently Dixie's family moved to Florida and that's where she and her other rescued siblings have been living ever since
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
Image credits: adventures_with_doo
We asked Danielle what she would like people to take away from Dixie Doo’s story and this is what she said:
"I would like you to take away that she’s adopted. She has a rough past. We worked through some things but I now couldn’t have a more perfect dog. She’s a mutt and has giant ears. Give the goofy-looking ones a chance! Before you go out and buy that [sic] $5,000 glorified mutt that pet stores are selling that came from a puppy mill, go to a few animal shelters to visit and look around. I promise your new friend will be so loyal and you’re saving a life.”
Here's what people had to say
In the world of pets, unique personalities and individual stories are what truly captivate us. Dixie is a standout with her fluffy ears and charming demeanor, drawing amusing comparisons to beloved characters like Baby Yoda. If you're intrigued by fascinating tales of canine personalities and how their traits are appreciated, consider exploring how understanding your furry friend's behavior can deepen your bond.
For more on this enriching concept, there's a wealth of insight regarding understanding dog behavior, which is essential for nurturing a healthy pet-owner relationship.