Dog Refuses to Walk, Becomes MTV Sensation

A tiny Russell Terrier in Brooklyn, NY inspired the number one MTV video this week, The Knack’s latest, “My Fiona.” The dog lives near the Pratt Institute and has had numerous offers to be an artist’s model, collaborate on installations, and date other dogs attending school there in the bone chewing program, but she remains isolated by her agoraphobia. When asked to walk, she indicates that she would “prefer not to.”

“People associate dogs with being big and strong. I’m small and vulnerable; I like to read poetry, and gaze outside at the passing world. I express myself primarily through barking but I also participate in the ritual game which in English is called fetch,” Fiona said in a rare interview with VJay Martha Quinn. MTV may do a special on the dog as part of their “Pets of Rock” series where they will be matching humans and their animal friends by hairstyle, starting with Flock of Seagulls. 

The band is raising money for a secluded pastureland for small, sensitive dogs. “She’s small, but we honestly just think she’s kind of hot,” said the drummer Bruce Gary, who, like Fiona, has no last name. “We met her on the set of Reality Bites. That was her name in the movie, Reality, and she does have a bite. Her song is on the soundtrack.”

Fiona at publication time can be rarely seen outside of her Brooklyn apartment where she lives with one human and a number of squeeze toys. “I find internal spaces stimulating. Don’t get me wrong, I love the country. I am considering touring with the boys, but I will mostly stay on the bus except when we’re out in the country. Rock stars are cool, but a dog likes real stars, up in the sky.”