Nina Beena Bolleena, Fee-Fi-Fo-Feena … Adopt Niiina!

From Life Restrained to PETA Breaking Her Chain, Nina Is Ready for Adoption Fame

Published March 25, 2025 by Katherine Sullivan.

3 min read

Picture it: Rural North Carolina, 2023. “New dog here,” Alex—a PETA fieldworker—documented. Coco, the new dog, was chained outside with a small plastic doghouse for shelter. The 6-month-old terrier’s owner “swears that Coco wants to be [outside],” Alex noted. Coco, meanwhile, appeared only to want to be in a loving lap:

Nina greeting a fieldworker — Nina—formerly “Coco”—seemed to beg fieldworkers not to leave her each time they visited. Here, she snuggles up to PETA Vice President of Community Animal Project (CAP) Emily Allen during a spring 2024 visit.

Alex, Emily, and every other CAP member who visited Coco begged her owner for the chance to find the playful pup a loving home indoors, but for a little more than a year, these pleas were denied. So fieldworkers did what they always do: They improved sweet Coco’s life in every way possible.

Nina jumping while chained — Before the winter weather became too frigid …

Nina greeting fieldworkers at the end of her chain, the doghouse behind her — PETA fieldworkers brought Nina a sturdy, insulated wooden doghouse.

In addition to delivering more durable shelter, CAP swapped Coco’s chain for a lightweight tie-out and—after her owner complained that the lively lady kept knocking her water dish over—secured a water bucket to her doghouse.

Nina at her tie-out — “[O]ddly heavy chain for such a small dog,” one fieldworker noted before breaking the chain in favor of a tie-out.

Eventually, PETA convinced Coco’s owner that a spayed dog is a healthier dog—as spaying eliminates the stress and discomfort of heat periods, nixes the risk of uterine cancer, and greatly reduces the possibility of mammary cancer—and scooped the terrier for a free sterilization appointment back in Virginia. When fieldworkers brought the newly spayed girl back, though, Coco’s owner refused to let her recover from surgery indoors. It was then, finally, that we were all in agreement: Coco was coming with PETA, this time for good.

Nina, a light brown terrier, looking at the camera — Is there a 15-lb., terrier-sized hole in your heart? Let adoptable Nina fill it!

Back in Norfolk, Nina—as she was promptly renamed by her PETA foster guardian—wasted no time making up for lost time. Safe and sound indoors, Nina is learning to snuggle, play, snooze, zoom, hang with her canine foster siblings, only potty outside, and more! Nina is spayed, vaccinated, and keen to be chauffeured by PETA to the most terrieriffic East Coast adoption applicant.

Nina is trading her chain and doghouse for freedom and a family!

E-mail [email protected] to inquire about giving both to this deserving girl.

Adopt Nina!