Do you guys follow any pet Instagram accounts? It feels like just when I thought I knew about all the social media big dogs, I’m told to check out a new four-legged Instagram celeb that steals my heart. Enter Kokoro and Chibi: Emily Wang’s furry duo who are so adorable, West Elm made included them in their ASPCA animal tree ornaments. Scroll down to read all about the precious pups!
Oh! And for all our fellow pet owners, stop by select West Elm stores on November 5th to take holiday photos with your fur babies, and for every photo posted and tagged with #westelmxaspca, they’re donating $1 to the ASPCA! Click here to RSVP at your local store.
Your name: Emily Wang, Community Manager at emwng.com
Your dogs’ names, breeds and ages: Kokoro, an American Eskimo Dog, 2 years old and Chibi, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, 1 year old.
1. How did your dogs come into your life? I adopted Kokoro during my senior year of undergrad. I had a good amount of free time with classes finishing up and only working a part-time job, and I’d always wanted to get a puppy. My boyfriend and I were looking for either a Samoyed, Shiba Inu, or Corgi, but weren’t able to find any in our area. We came across Kokoro, who is basically a tiny version of the Samoyed, and fell in love with her when we met her. We took the little white fluff ball home in August of 2013! Chibi came along a year later as we were looking to get Kokoro a playmate. After I started working full-time, she was spending a lot of time alone at my then non-pet-friendly office, so we thought that getting a second dog would be great so they could keep each other company. I went back to my original list of breeds that I was interested in and found a breeder in Michigan with a litter of pups coming up. We waited 6 months for Chibi, and she came home to us in July 2014.
2. Your favorite thing about Kokoro and Chibi: They just always put a smile on my face! K is extremely intuitive and can sense your emotions easily. Whenever someone is feeling down, she’ll come right over and comfort them, whether with a tap of a paw on your shoulder as if to say “it’s okay!” or with a lick on the cheek. If you’re extremely excited about something, she’ll get ramped up and jump around with you to celebrate whatever you’re celebrating. Chibi is just the goofiest thing, and never fails to make people fall in love with her. Dogs teach us so many things, and my dogs in particular remind me to enjoy every little thing in life! They’ve opened so many doors of opportunity for me and made me so many close friends through the Instagram community.
3. Your favorite thing to do together: My boyfriend and I love going on hikes with our dogs. Whenever possible, we take them on off-leash adventures into different parks or trails. I especially love when there’s bodies of water around for the pups to splash around in.
4. The weirdest/funniest thing Kokomo does: Kokoro is very expressive with her paws. She will tap you with one paw if she wants your attention, just like a person would. She’ll also use you as a vertical stretching pole as if she was a cat.
5. And Chibi? Chibi hates using her legs. Honestly, she’s probably on her back most of the time. I would be too if I had to support all of my body weight on four stumpy little legs! Chibi does this thing where she rubs the side of her body against a wall, walks along the wall, and then plops down on to the ground and rolls around in the corner between the wall and the floor. She’s always done this since the first day we brought her home, and it still weirds me out every time. She also loves to ask for belly rubs and will walk up to you, slowly lay onto her back, and wiggle her little front paws at you until you reach down and give her what she wants.
6. What’s the naughtiest thing your dogs have ever done? On my first day of work at my new job, one of my coworkers gifted me some flowers and a bar of chocolate. I stashed the chocolate in my bag and took it home, leaving it on the ground where it usually sits. The next morning, I left briefly to throw out the trash in my apartment, and came back to find an empty chocolate bar wrapper and two happy dogs sitting in front of me. Chibi (well, I assume it was Chibi because Kokoro has never done such mischievous things!) had apparently gone fishing into the bottom of my bag and stolen the chocolate bar and eaten it with Kokoro in the 5 minutes that I was gone. Obviously, I freaked out quite a bit, and called three vets in the area who all told me not to worry. Turns out that baker’s chocolate and dark chocolate are the most toxic for dogs, and they’d have to eat around their entire body weight for it to do serious damage.
