Dundee rescue dog Mr Piffles stars in Netflix hit Queer Eye weeks after his death

Mr Piffles, a rescue dog from Dundee, is the guest star on the new series of Netflix hit Queer Eye.

The chihuahua is the sidekick of professional magician Piff the Magic Dragon.

Piff, real name John van der Put, has made Mr Piffles a part of his act since adopting him in 2007.

The pair have appeared on America’s Got Talent and supported Mumford and Sons at their Caird Hall concert in 2012.

Queer Eye’s ninth season, where five advisers spend a week improving someone’s life, arrived on Netflix last week.

In the episode, John is nominated by his assistant and real-life partner Jade for a makeover.

Sadly, weeks before the series arrived on the streaming platform, John revealed that Mr Piffles had died, just shy of his 17th birthday.

Discussing Mr Piffles, John said: “He’s 16 and a half and he’s a rescue dog from Dundee in Scotland.

“I got him when he was a year and eight months and we’ve been together ever since.

“I adopted Mr Piffles but soon it was like he adopted me.

“When I was starting out and coming up the gigs were rough, long journeys and terrible dive bars.

“He was the one who was there, we did it together.”

Dundee rescue dog appears on Netflix series

Later in the episode, John reveals why Mr Piffles became a part of his act.

“I was doing my first show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival,” he said.

“It was funny but I thought: ‘This needs something. It needs a gimmick’.

“The girl who was running the venue, she had a chihuahua and we put the chihuahua in the show. It was so funny.

“The next day, we searched for rescue chihuahuas and we found Mr Piffles.”

The episode ends with a dapper John receiving the Magician of the Year award from the Academy of Magical Arts.

In his speech, John said: “To Mr Piffles, who is in the house tonight. The world’s only magic-performing chihuahua.

“Although you had many opportunities over the years to go solo, thank you for not doing it.”

John wasn’t the only one who benefitted from the show, with Mr Piffles getting his own ‘magical playground’ outside the Las Vegas venue where they perform.

But John broke the sad news about Mr Piffles’ death on Instagram in November.

He said: “For over fifteen years I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of being upstaged and outshone night after night by that little ball of fluffy indifference.

“He came into my life when I had nothing, and set me on the path to a career I could only dream of.

“In the beginning, I may have rescued him, but in the end, he rescued me.”

Earlier this year, John paid $60,000 to clone Mr Piffles, allowing him to retire after years of performing.