Tatum is a rescue dog based in Maine with a very unique trait — he can talk! Here is an in-depth look at his life and how he found himself a TikTok and Instagram influencer.
Tatum’s Humble Beginnings
Nicole and Charles Lever found their boy Tatum through The Pixel Fund pet rescue. Originally rescued from a high kill shelter in Georgia, Tatum found himself at a couple of different foster homes before eventually ending up in Maine.
Nicole found Tatum’s photo on The Pixel Fund’s website. “I felt like I could see his soul through his eyes. I know it sounds really cliché, but I truly saw him,” she said. “I was like, this is our dog. I kept showing Charlie pictures of Tatum and he kept saying ‘no, no, we don’t need a dog.’”
The couple lived in a condo at the time, and Charles was a little worried about getting a dog in such a small space. Nicole just couldn’t get Tatum out of her mind though. She inquired about him, and one afternoon, when she and Charles were out to lunch, Tatum’s foster mom called her. She raved about Tatum, calling him the laziest, most easygoing dog.
Another party was inquiring about the possibility of making Tatum a service dog, so Charles asked if they could take Tatum for a few days to see if he fit into their home. The foster mom was hesitant to do so, given Tatum’s multiple transfers in the past.
With that, the rest was history. Nicole told the foster they’d take Tatum forever. The woman told her that his tail was broken and hoped they wouldn’t mind. Of course, Nicole and Charles did not mind at all. They now joke that Tatum’s tail doesn’t wag to the left because he’s always right!
@hi.this.is.tatumWhat you’ve all been waiting for, part 1♬ Hey Joey Part 1 – Tatum Talks
The Makings of a Social Media Star
The Levers had Tatum for three years before he became a social media star. “It’s wild, it was never even something we intended to do,” Charles said. “We started making videos for Nicole’s sisters and mother and my sisters when someone made a comment that this could be funny on social media.”
Nicole’s mother joked that Charles and Tatum could have their own talk show together, too. The couple debated a few days before posting to social media, with Charles worried he could be “just some 31-year-old dude who makes videos with his dog on the internet that are really cringy and annoying.”
Obviously, that is not the case. Charles and Nicole called the last two-and-a-half years a true blessing. Tatum’s videos are now many a child’s bedtime story. Since Tatum has his own P.O. Box, he gets fan mail from kids, including pictures they draw and letters they write to the pup.
“This was a first: last year, a student of mine showed up with Tatum merch on,” said Nicole, who is an elementary school teacher. “I would try to be teaching and hear ‘please feed the dog’ in the background — I couldn’t even be mad.”
Nicole was, of course, referring to Tatum’s iconic “Please Feed the Dog” holiday video from December 2020.
The Levers are even starting to get recognized in public. At a Backstreet Boys concert earlier this summer, two women sitting near them leaned over and mentioned their love for Tatum, referring to the merch the Levers sported. Charles said, “That’s our dog,” and the ladies’ mouths dropped open. The two (naturally) asked for selfies with the Levers.
The Brains Behind the Operation
If you’re wondering who comes up with the ideas for videos, Charles calls Nicole the “brains of the operation.”
“I hate standup comedy. Nothing makes me laugh unless it’s improv because that’s what’s funny to me,” Nicole said. “It has to be truly authentic for me to actually laugh and go with it. There’s nothing worse than people trying to act in staged TikTok videos.”
Nicole’s love of spontaneity in their videos is exactly what makes Tatum’s clips so special. “99 percent of the time we have no lines but a general idea of what we’re going to do,” Charles said. “I pretty much turn on the camera and go.”
The natural reactions from Nicole as Charles voices Tatum keep viewers laughing, including Charles himself.
“We get comments all the time that say, ‘I refuse to believe he doesn’t talk,’ or ‘I always forget he doesn’t talk,’” Charles added. “Tatum has truly become another talking person in our household. We talk to him when we’re not filming.”
Tatum now has an agent with The Dog Agency. Working from home since the pandemic has allowed Charles to answer emails or return phone calls quickly during downtime in his IT job.
Tatum’s Big Dreams
The Lever’s biggest dream for Tatum as a dogfluencer is to have a TV show or be in a Disney movie. “A Disney movie would be everything. It seems so far-fetched, but it’s a dream, so might as well have one,” Nicole said.
Charles added that many tag Pixar and Netflix on Tatum’s comments on social media, asking why he doesn’t have his own show. Just minutes before our phone call, someone commented on Tatum’s latest TikTok to express their desire for a full-length video. The Levers also expressed interest in possibly writing a children’s book about Tatum.
“I’d love to see Tatum as a cartoon,” Nicole said. “The world is so crazy, it’s nice to have Tatum as a bright light with no arguing or politics or anything like that.”
Charles is forever grateful for Nicole for insisting Tatum’s videos remain G-rated, especially because he is “not a G-rated person.”
“I would never want a parent to watch a Tatum video and have to wonder if they should watch it before their children do,” he said.
You can become one of Tatum’s 481,000 and counting Instagram followers here and 3.4 million TikTok followers here.
You can catch a short video of Tatum meeting my dog Tito and I below. Needless to say, we were both pretty starstruck.
@dogtimedotcom @tito_the_french_bulldog got to talk to @hi.this.is.tatum ♬ original sound – DogTime
