A New York City dog owner has gone viral after looking away for a moment only to find her dog had been up to no good—turning around to find her pet standing motionless inside a large plant pot, mess everywhere.
Andrea Steinkamp said her dog, Baxter, a rescue believed to be a Chihuahua mix, had been unwell for around 24 hours before the moment captured in the now‑widely shared video. Baxter, who will turn 11 in August, lives with Steinkamp and his sibling, Chi Chi, also a rescue from the same organization.
According to Steinkamp, the night before the video was recorded had been difficult. Baxter had been vomiting and experiencing diarrhea, requiring repeated clean‑ups throughout the apartment. By the following morning, the situation had escalated.
Steinkamp said she woke up to find several large plants in the living room destroyed and dug out, along with other messes across the floor. Although Baxter already had a veterinary appointment scheduled for later that morning, she decided to take him in immediately after noticing how lethargic he had become.
“He couldn’t really even walk well when we went outside,” Steinkamp told Newsweek. She placed Baxter in his carrier on her bed but left it partially unzipped while she briefly stepped into the bathroom.
When she returned, the carrier was empty.
“I didn’t see him anywhere,” she said. “That’s when I walked around the bed and found him in the pot.”
In the video, Baxter can be seen standing still inside a large plant pot, surrounded by spilled soil. Steinkamp said his reaction was exactly what viewers saw.
“He just stood there frozen, like if he didn’t move I wouldn’t see him,” she said.
She described the behavior as highly unusual for him. While Baxter has occasionally buried an extra treat in a plant, she said he normally does so quietly and without causing damage.
“This level of sheer chaos and destruction was unprecedented,” she said, adding that she was deeply worried about his condition at the time.
Steinkamp said her initial reaction was shock, followed by a sense of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband was traveling, she had an important work meeting later that morning, and her mother was flying in that afternoon to attend her son’s basketball game.
“I didn’t know how I was going to be able to take care of everyone sufficiently,” she said.
Despite the stress of the moment, thankfully Baxter was ok, and Steinkamp ultimately decided to share the video online where she added the caption: “Send help.”
“I had to laugh to keep from crying,” she said. “And I figured if I could help lighten someone else’s load with a bit of laughter, it would be worthwhile.”
