Frannie the Golden Retriever has stolen the hearts of over 400,000 people in half a year. This beloved dog inspired millions to change their lives as they watched her journey towards losing weight and becoming healthier. 

Frannie was forced to live the past eight years of her life outside, through harsh rain and ferocious snow, without care from her caretakers. She started her journey being overweight after primarily being fed leftovers from her owners, amassing an incredible weight of 125 pounds: The average grown female golden retriever weighs between 55 and 65 pounds. Due to this fact, this lovable big girl was almost about to be euthanized; her weight came with health problems, even almost robbing her of the ability to stand. But this all changed when Frannie encountered Annika Bram. She is no longer held in the lethargic shell that she was in prior to meeting Bram on Christmas Eve. 

Prior to meeting Frannie, Annika Bram, a student at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, was feeling down after the recent loss of her dog Georgia. She had rescued Georgia, who was also an overweight senior golden retriever. Bram had wanted to put off getting another dog after grieving over her dog, however, when Bram opened up a video sent by her roommate of an 8-year-old golden retriever, she fell instantly in love. Frannie’s floppy ears reminded her of Georgia, and she couldn’t resist taking Frannie in. From the moment she saw this video posted by Rover’s Retreat in December, she knew she had to adopt Frannie.

When Bram met Frannie, at that time, she was 65 pounds overweight, and had lived outside for her entire life. 

“She had just been living outside for the entirety of her eight years,” said Sydney Maleman, the president of Rover’s Retreat. The rescue shelter first learned of Frannie when they received a tip from an anonymous person on the neighborhood networking site Nextdoor. Maleman said humorously, “She was drinking out of a paint bucket.”

According to Maleman, Frannie was fed tons of table scraps and spent years with untreated hypothyroidism which led to her obesity. In short, hypothyroidism, otherwise known as ‘underactive thyroid,’ causes metabolism to slow down, making people gain weight. It occurs when the thyroid gland does not produce enough of the thyroid hormone. In addition to weight gain, those who have this condition also have fatigue and sensitivity to the cold.

The severity of Frannie’s obesity was apparent when Rover’s Retreat rescued her from the house. “It took four people to get her into the back of my minivan,” Maleman remembered when interviewed in a WashingtonPost article. Afterward, when she was examined the vets reported her to be “very medically unstable,” she couldn’t even lift her head due to a sudden case of pneumonia. 

Rover’s Retreat was at a loss. After seeing Frannie’s delicate state, they were cautious about whether they would be rehoming her anytime soon thanks to her weight gain and trauma from her previous owners. 

That was when Bram stepped in. “She just kept following up with us,” said Maleman. Despite never meeting Frannie in person, Bram was determined to help Frannie recover. She was confident in her abilities and knew that she wanted to be a part of Frannie’s weight loss journey. 

After endless e-mails and phone calls, the rescue finally decided to let Bram meet Frannie and officially foster her. When Bram met Frannie she said “She was just so heavy…I had literal blisters on my hands from picking her up.” Despite the troubles, she knew it was a sign to help her just as she had helped Georgia, her dog that she helped lose 85 pounds. 

Frannie had huge calluses on her elbows and back legs, no fur on her tail, and hypothyroidism from spending extensive amounts of time laying on the hot concrete. She also seemed to be depressed and lethargic. Beyond dealing with hyperthyroidism and obesity, Frannie also had a tail injury covered with a sock out of convenience. The tail in question was hairless and covered with open wounds. This tail injury was likely caused by Frannie resting the weight of her body on it. If it had gotten any worse it would have broken off or had even more bleeding.

Though Frannie had her doubts about Bram at first, she was shy and reluctant to follow her, when she saw all the effort that Bram put in, she put her all towards getting better and turning over a new leaf despite her low spirits.

Since Bram’s friends and family had convinced her to help Frannie, after Bram fostered Frannie, all of Bram’s friends and family would check up on how Frannie was doing and if her condition had gotten any better. At first, Bram would message every person she knew with updates on Frannie and exciting news of her progress, but the constant upkeep with each individual friend would take way too much time. She thought of a better idea. Instead of messaging each person individually, Bram decided it might be better if she created an Instagram for all her family and friends to receive regular updates on Frannie while seeing cute photos. That was the start of Frannie’s Instagram account, @frannies.fight. 

Bram only posted a few photos of Frannie with heartwarming captions but in the same week when she made a video about Frannie’s journey it blew up overnight.

To Bram’s surprise, thousands felt inspired and motivated by Frannie’s journey. This account originally took off when Bram posted a video about Frannie’s past and her motivation to get better, within minutes hundreds of people were commenting things like “Go Frannie Go! Melt the pounds away for better zoomies!!” and this video has received 12,100,000 views, 2,080 comments, and 621,000 likes as of today. This was just the start of Frannie’s fame, and within a matter of months, the account has grown to over 400,000 followers. (She has also documented Frannie’s progress on TikTok, on her account @franniesfight.)

As Frannie’s following changed at a rapid pace, so did Frannie. Within a month, she had already lost over 10 pounds and was finally able to stand on her own. However, these results had come with lots of effort and some hilariously questionable methods.

Bram prioritized finding a way to let Frannie hold her body up without hurting her legs. Bram found her largest basin and placed Frannie on it along with a tennis ball to keep her distracted. Bram recalled, “one of the funniest things I remember was putting her on her ‘box’ for the first time, which is this large teal storage container I flipped over and was using for support underneath her.” This little exercise was to get her used to standing on her own and it worked wonders.

Beyond letting Frannie get some more time on her legs so that she could walk on her own, during her recovery Bram had gotten a special dog harness to hold Frannie up and help her walk easier since it was apparent that rehabilitation was necessary. 

Although these accomplishments may seem little, Frannie could hardly move without support at the start of this journey. Within four months, and with the help of Bram, Frannie can run despite her old age and obesity.

As Bram watched Frannie improve and Frannie learned to trust Bram, the duo now spends every second of the day together. Bram is constantly brainstorming new things that Frannie can try. According to Bram, after taking care of Frannie for half a year, they are “bonded for life.” 

Though Bram initially intended to foster Frannie temporarily because she was worried that she wasn’t the right person, she finally decided to adopt Frannie now that she had become a part of their daily life. Frannie has now found her forever home and continues to improve every day.

According to Annika Bram, after taking care of Frannie for half a year, they are “bonded for life.”