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With his grumpy expression and green fur, Rizzo, a miniature Schnauzer from Chicago, is practically the spitting image of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
His owner, Ashley Spielmann (37) uploaded a video to TikTok of Rizzo's festive makeover which quickly went viral with 12 million views.
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"We love Christmas in our house and absolutely love the Grinch," Ashley told Newsweek.
"My younger children watched the movie every night last year. So, because Schnauzers naturally have grumpy faces, I thought we could do something fun and he would be the perfect Grinch."
But not everyone thought it was such a great idea and the family has come in for a hammering from TikTok users.
“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” one critic said. “Kinda looks like animal abuse to me," another added.
Unfazed by the negative comments, Ashley shared more videos, including one of Rizzo posing under a Christmas tree and another of him relaxing on a bed watching the Grinch movie along with a sarcastic dig at her critics: "He’s so abused," she quipped.
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She explained that the green hair dye wasn’t harmful to Rizzo, who's around a year old.
"Our groomer has used colour on other dogs here and there, so I talked to her about the dye being safe and asked if she could do the Grinch and she jumped on it and did an amazing job," she said.
"I hope it starts a trend and we see all the holiday pets or a bunch of coloured Grinch pets everywhere."
Sources: dailymail.com, newsweek.com tiktok.com
