--- title: Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation description: A hastag, #RidiculouslyPhotogenicAdoptionGuy, was coined in his honor canonical: https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-11T15:19:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:02.766Z og:title: Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation og:description: A hastag, #RidiculouslyPhotogenicAdoptionGuy, was coined in his honor og:url: https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3484ce603560853/69877ef3524fc0fb92dec746/10353548_10153052813977748_350277885121593423_n.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ben Henderson and his adopted puppy Raffa at Pet's Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation twitter:description: A hastag, #RidiculouslyPhotogenicAdoptionGuy, was coined in his honor twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3484ce603560853/69877ef3524fc0fb92dec746/10353548_10153052813977748_350277885121593423_n.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation by [Amy Jamieson / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Amy Jamieson / People Contributor Feb 11, 2015 3:19 PM UTC  Ben Henderson and his adopted puppy Raffa at Pet's Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia. Ben Henderson and his adopted puppy Raffa at Pet's Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia.Pets Haven Animal Shelter by [Amy Jamieson / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Amy Jamieson / People Contributor Feb 11, 2015 3:19 PM UTC The world agrees: Raffa is one seriously lucky dog. When a photo of the adorable pup with his new dad was shared by Pets Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia, on Facebook over the weekend, the Internet said: Who is that cutie? And, they weren’t referring to the dog. The photo of the tanned, muscular hunk holding the pup he just adopted was liked by more than 15,000 people on Facebook and was shared more than 60 times (and counting). Nearly 1,000 comments poured in from inquiring eyes all over the world, and the hashtag #RidiculouslyPhotogenicAdoptionGuy was coined in his honor. “Do you have any other men like this up for adoption?” reads one comment from fan Jade Tuncdoruk in Sydney. “Can he take me home too? Hahahahaha,” reads another from Danielle Murphy in New Zealand. Memes of the photo popped up faster than you can say, woof. Turns out the photogenic animal rescuer is [Ben Henderson](https://www.facebook.com/ben.henderson.338), a college graduate from Melbourne, according to his Facebook page. It was _ruff_ all around when fans learned that he’s been engaged since 2013\. In a cute comment on the photo, his fiancée Alisha Howell [chimed in with a picture of her engagement ring](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=772864726138359&set=p.772864726138359&type=1&theater) and wrote: “Sorry ladies he put a ring on it !! Haha.” But does he have a brother? _This_ [_article_](http://www.peoplepets.com/people/pets/article/0,,20900359,00.html?xid=IFT-Trending) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com)_._ ### 10 Puppies That Look Even More Adorable Underwater  Pringles & Pickme Seth Casteel  Monty Seth Casteel  Popsicle Seth Casteel  Ginger Seth Casteel  Ruger Seth Casteel  Rolley Seth Casteel  Iggy Seth Casteel  Reason Seth Casteel  Corey Seth Casteel ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/"},"headline":"Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation","datePublished":"2015-02-11T15:19:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:02.766Z","description":"A hastag, #RidiculouslyPhotogenicAdoptionGuy, was coined in his honor","url":"https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3484ce603560853/69877ef3524fc0fb92dec746/10353548_10153052813977748_350277885121593423_n.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Jamieson / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3484ce603560853/69877ef3524fc0fb92dec746/10353548_10153052813977748_350277885121593423_n.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ben Henderson and his adopted puppy Raffa at Pet's Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia.","caption":"Ben Henderson and his adopted puppy Raffa at Pet's Haven Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia.","creditText":"Pets Haven Animal Shelter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3704885/puppy-adoption-viral-sensation/","name":"Australian Man Adopts a Puppy and Becomes a Viral Sensation"}}]}] ```