Dogs of Instagram

Gabby Fegan, 17 months. “Why are you making me pose for this picture?”

Gabby Fegan, 17 months. “Why are you making me pose for this picture?”

Nacho Cilantro has 102k followers on Instagram. Don’t know who that is? Despite the over 100,000 followers? I’m not surprised. He’s a boxer pup - an extremely handsome gorgeous boxer pup (but aren’t they all?) - that belongs to Jillian Harris, former bachelorette star, host of HGTVs Love it or List it Vancouver edition, and social media darling with a beautifully curated Instagram feed of her beautiful life. I can’t figure it out if I love to hate her or hate to love her… she seems to have chilled out a bit and there doesn’t seem to be nearly as much drama from her feed as there used to be. There have definitely been some group chats with my squad that have been on fire over things she has said or done on her Instagram. I can’t even remember examples of said drama but it was definitely worthy of ½ a day of gossiping at least. Some of her followers judged what she was feeding her son or something, and she fought back, I think. It was good at the time and not memorable so there you have it. The life of an online celebrity.

Anyway. This post is not about Jillian Harris, it’s about her dog. I didn’t know he had an Instagram account of his own, though now that I think about it, I think I’ve seen her “@” the dog’s account before but paid it no attention. The other day though, Jillian posted an introduction to their NEW boxer puppy, Peaches, who also has her own Instagram account, with over 30k followers already! Wtf? She’s absolutely adorable and I’m really jealous. I would love to have another boxer puppy in my life but I will never have another boxer puppy in my life. Promise. More on that in another post.

So seeing all this gets me thinking. I never post photos of my own boxer on Instagram. My last picture of Gabby is from last June. That was seven months ago! Before that was February 2018 and the only other post is from the day we got her! What am I even doing? How am I even a dog lover?  I love Gabby! She’s awesome. She’s the boxer I always wanted. She’s sweet and smart and a part of our family. I don’t even really take that many pictures of her. Matt does, he has some great shots, but they spend a lot of time in the great outdoors together every morning without the kids so he actually has a moment to think of it.

So here I am, envious of all the gorgeous photos of Nacho Cilantro on Instagram and feel like I should be doing better.

I think this is how some of my friends feel about Jillian Harris. Her feed is too much, it’s not “real”, it feels fake and staged and way too much to try and live up to. Her stuff, her travels, her elaborate parties...this glam life she’s presenting as real life. It’s not relatable and unattainable for most of us. Sure, we can scroll her feed and feel inspired but it can also instill a lot of pressure on ourselves to do and be better and for most of us, we just don’t have time (or resources) at this point in our tired, messy lives to even try! It’s for this reason some of my friends won’t follow her feed anymore and that’s ok. If something’s making you feel anything less than good then unfollow that s*#t! But in this case, instead of feeling envious or less than, I am going to feel inspired. I’m going to share the puppy love going on in our house. I’m going to follow Nacho on Instagram and maybe his little sister Peaches. I’m going to like their photos for what they are- cute and funny and some of them make me laugh and some of them make me roll my eyes and most of them make me smile. They give me appreciation for my own dog.

And I kind of want to run a social experiment. How long would it take Gabby to get more followers than me on Instagram? Real true “dog people” are just bonkers for dogs, obviously. Boxer lovers go gaga for boxers, naturally. I bet with the right hashtags, Gabby will hit 500 followers in no time...

A pensive puppy gazing out the window, dreaming of her next romp in the snow.

A pensive puppy gazing out the window, dreaming of her next romp in the snow.