Why @ivepetthatdog Is the Best

There are loads of social media accounts dedicated to dogs, cats, and people loving both of those things. Some are highly edited and curated, while others are little organic gems of goodness, like Gideon’s. Gideon is a 10-year-old from Iowa that documents all the dogs he pets.

 

According to Outside, the pet-lover had interacted with more than 600 dogs, and Twitter is noticing: “One day in May, he went to school in the morning and had 100 followers and came home to find 5,000: with a few high-profile retweets, the internet had done its thing.”

 

 

 

Gideon’s account is managed by his mom and is currently at 45K followers. He writes little stories about the dogs he meets…and it’s adorable. Outside notes that he “asks owners a series of questions about each dog: How old is she? What’s unique about him? Do you have any funny stories? If it’s OK with the owners—in his posts, Gideon calls them caregivers—[his mother] takes a photo, and Gideon composes a description, which he dictates to his [her].”

 

 

 

 

I love that while social media often keeps real-life interaction at bay, this 10-year-old has found a way to connect with hundreds of owners and animals and share it all over the world. Go, Gideon!

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Maureen Dempsey

Maureen Dempsey is a freelance writer living in New York with an ancient, 14-year-old chihuahua and a feisty, young dachshund.

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