Huntington Beach’s Fletcher the dog a finalist in Cadbury Bunny tryouts

Fletcher, a 2-year-old golden retriever, is a constant source of joy for Huntington Beach resident Ellen Kuhnert and the people in her life.

Kuhnert, the chief nursing officer at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, brings her dog to work on Fridays. They call it “Fletcher Friday.”

People come into her office to visit with Fletcher. Recently, he’s spent time being a cheerful presence for people who are getting their COVID-19 vaccinations.

“[COVID-19] has been psychologically and emotionally and physically so draining,” Kuhnert said. “Everybody’s so exhausted, so we try to do things to keep each other’s spirits up. Having him there is definitely one of those things.”

Fletcher was a great comfort to Kuhnert a year ago, when her father, Robert, passed away just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning.

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Kuhnert isn’t selfish with her pup, though. As a matter of fact, she hopes he will be on television screens across the country in just days.

Fletcher is one of 10 national finalists in this year’s Cadbury Bunny Tryouts. He’s vying against two other dogs, a cat, an alpaca, a goat, a frog, a horse, a cow and one actual bunny.

Voting runs through Wednesday at 9 p.m. Pacific time at bunnytryouts.cadburyusa.com. The family of the winning “bunny” will receive $5,000 and have their pet featured in this year’s Cadbury Easter commercial.

The people at Cadbury must have seen something in Fletcher, like most who are around him do.

“He’s extremely friendly,” Kuhnert said. “He’s loving, very sweet but he’s got a funny side to him, too. And he’s really competitive.”

Fletcher is pictured with owner Ellen Kuhnert.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Things have moved fast since Kuhnert, on the advice of a coworker, entered Fletcher into the contest in late February. She submitted a picture of Fletcher wearing bunny ears, relaxing in the backyard of the house she shares with her friend, Luis Tirado.

They found out he was a semifinalist on March 4, and had four days to pull together an audition video to send in.

They decided to put Fletcher behind the wheel of a purple Volkswagen Beetle owned by Tirado’s father for the video. The premise was that with everyone using food delivery more during the pandemic, Fletcher could deliver Cadbury eggs.

Just two days later, Kuhnert found out that Fletcher was a national finalist among more than 12,000 entries. Now, they’re in a campaign for the win. Kuhnert has signs in her yard and at work, as well as at a dog park in her community, encouraging people to vote for Fletcher.

With Wednesday being the last day of voting, Kuhnert will find out soon if he wins.

“Obviously, we’re partial to him,” Kuhnert said. “He’s so special to us. We waited a long time to get him, did a lot of research. We put a lot of time in with him with training and everything, because that’s the life we want him to have. To think just from a photo, everybody else found that kind of joy that he’s brought to our lives? It was emotional, for sure.”

Fletcher, who has an Instagram following at @golden_boy_fletcher, clearly works hard and plays hard. Kuhnert has a collection of more than 365 bow ties for him — one for every day of the year — and he wears them depending on mood, situation or holiday.

Since he was young, Fletcher has been taking training classes at Zoom Room in Huntington Beach. He also goes dock diving at The Bone Adventure in Costa Mesa. Fletcher won a silver medal at a competition there in December 2019, with a dive of 19 feet.

Voting for the Cadbury Bunny Tryouts ends Wednesday night.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Breana Dorame, the pool manager at The Bone Adventure, has known Fletcher since he was a puppy. Kuhnert and Tirado typically take Fletcher and the household’s other dog, a border collie named Sydney, dock diving there on Sunday mornings.

Dorame said she was excited to hear that Kuhnert had entered Fletcher in the Cadbury Bunny contest, and even more thrilled that he is a finalist.

“I saw all of the pictures,” she said. “He looked so handsome in all of them. It’s just so adorable. I wouldn’t put it past him to win that. He’s just such a good boy, too.”

Kuhnert said winning the contest would be an honor. There is some precedent for one of Fletcher’s species to claim the prize: Last year’s Cadbury Bunny winner was a two-legged rescue dog from Ohio named Lieutenant Dan.

“It would be great to have everybody see the commercial and feel some love and joy from him,” Kuhnert said. “Even if it makes 10 other people happy, it’s so worth it.”

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