When Michele Kidd noticed her dog Louie limping and holding up a paw, she feared the worst, but a trip to the veterinarian, and $500 later, revealed that the Maltipoo was not injured—he just does not like car rides.
A viral video chronicling the ordeal was shared to TikTok under @louies_city_adventures on July 14 and has now amassed more than 259,000 views and over 24,000 likes. The clip, which left viewers in stitches, shows Louie dramatically holding his paw in the air before a cut to a vet visit. It ends with the dog racing around the living room, injury-free.
An overlaid text on the video provided more context: “Off to the vet to check out his broken foot. $500 later … To find out it’s not broken; he just doesn’t like car rides.” The caption added: “Not my dog pulling a full soap opera performance to skip the car ride.”
Kidd, 36, who lives in a high-rise apartment in Chicago, Illinois, told Newsweek that Louie’s behavior, while over-the-top, did not come as a complete surprise.
“He is incredibly sassy, spunky, and, even with all the training classes, he still failed the good citizen test as he refuses to listen to anyone,” Kidd said.
She adopted Louie during the pandemic in April 2021, a few months after his birth in December 2020. Since then, the pup has become known in her household—and now, to a growing online audience—for his dramatic tendencies and refusal to conform.
“He often will drag his food bowl to me if he wants a second dinner, or brings my shoe to me if he wants another walk because he was not happy with the first one,” Kidd said. “Louie faking an injury to get his way was not in the end a surprise to me at all.”
Kidd said that Louie’s veterinary office is familiar with the dog’s antics and knows him “on a first-name basis.” Even after learning there was no injury, the dramatics did not stop.
@louies_city_adventures
“To this day, he still pretends his paw is broken when we put him in the car,” Kidd said. “Now, when he’s tired of holding one paw up pretending, he’s injured, he will put it down and hold the other one up to switch up his injury.”
While Louie has starred in other videos posted to his TikTok account, none had achieved comparable reach until now.
“I was honestly shocked how many views he got so quickly,” Kidd said. “All his other videos only got a few hundred views, and this one is now over 250,000.”
She said she believes the widespread response was fueled by relatability—pet owners recognizing their own dogs’ eccentricities in Louie’s faux-injury performance.
“People related and shared in the comments all the funny things their dogs have done that ended in a vet visit,” Kidd said.
“Louie is the best, so we are hoping to share more of his funny moments, and hopefully eventually he will start to pay off his own veterinary bills.”
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