A HILARIOUS video shows the exchange between two canvassers from animal rescue centre Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and an uninterested Nigerian mum.
Arabelle Akinfe shared the cheeky exchange to TikTok after her mother Grace was left confused by the fundraisers when they called round to her Hertfordshire home last Thursday.
The video – captured from a Ring doorbell camera – begins with the two campaigners ringing Grace’s doorbell as one of the young men says: “Hi, just calling on behalf of Battersea, can we have a chat?”
Grace, 55, can then be heard confusingly saying: “From where?”
The man replies “Battersea” before Grace quickly retorts: “What’s Battersea?”
The man gently explains “Cats and dogs.”
Grace then says: “We don’t do cats and dogs. We’re black, we don’t actually do animals here so…”
The two men then begin laughing hysterically, with Grace joining them in a chorus of chuckles.
The other campaigner then approaches the doorbell camera saying: “Aunty, are you Nigerian by any chance?”
Grace replies: “Yeah, I’m from Nigeria and I’ve got four kids here, enough! I can’t even have one more dog or cat or anything, you know? We roast them, we eat them in our country.”
The two men continue to laugh hysterically again before the man says: “Aunty, I’m Nigerian as well so I know what you mean, but I’ll just keep it quick for you.
“Aunty we’re not here to give you any pets or anything like that.”
Undeterred, Grace replies: “My next door neighbour has a dog so you could go to both of them, my next door neighbour loves their dog so go knock on that door, they’ll welcome you, lovely people.”
The man resigns the plea and says: “Alright then aunty, alright”, before beginning to move on.
However, his colleague then cheekily says: “Aunty, I know you don’t love dogs but you love us right? Can you see us?”, as the two men pose together in front of the camera.
She replies: “I can see you guys very well.”
The man then says: “Basically, we raise awareness for Battersea Cats and Dogs.”
She interrupts them whilst laughing, saying: “My husband said you guys should move on now, he’s being jealous, he can see you guys now, bye.”
One of the men then jokingly pleads to the camera saying: “Sorry oga (boss), sorry oga, God bless you, brother.”
The pair then turn and walk off, with all parties still chuckling at the wholesome exchange.
Grace’s daughter Arabelle, 21, shared the video to TikTok on Saturday (18 FEB) with the caption: “Disclaimer: we love pets.”
The video has received over 270,000 users and dozens of comments from users left in stitches over Grace’s hilarious antics with the pair.
One TikTok user wrote: “As someone who works for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home this is actually hilarious.”
Another wrote: “The way they switched up their accent.”
Another commented: “They did not want to leave.”
A third wrote: “No but I love us though, like the way they automatically referred to her as ‘aunty’ and were funny but respectful and called her hubby ‘uncle/oga’.”
A fourth user said: “She said double it and give it to the next person.”
One of the campaigners even commented after seeing themselves in the video, writing: “Caught us in 4K”, to which Arabelle replied: “Hope you guys get a promotion!”
Speaking today Arabelle said: “I was at work and saw the notification from Amazon on my phone and decided to listen along to it.
“I was cracking up listening to the conversation and I immediately saved it and sent it to my boyfriend, who said I had to post it on TikTok.
“I didn’t even tell my mum I was going to post it. She eventually did find out, when the video reached 10,000 views, from a family friend that got sent the video and recognised my mum’s voice and our cars in the driveway.
“Even the Battersea guys messaged me on TikTok saying how hilarious they thought my mum was. It was all very sweet.
“However my mum, who does not like cats or dogs, thought they were trying to sell her cats and dogs or something!”
