16 Important Animal Instagram Accounts to Follow ASAP

Collage by Maria Jia Ling Pitt, photo by Teddy the Shetland via @teddytheshetland.

Pet Instagram accounts are my favorite genre of literature. To say I was born to review them would be to understand me deeply and implicitly. My Instagram feed is essentially an animal slideshow, interrupted only by the odd meme and occasional outfit. I keep a tight ship. It’s stuffed with quadrupeds. There’s almost nothing I love more than a paw, but a claw or hoof will do.

Animals are perfect. For one, they can’t speak. Contrary to popular and scientific belief, this puts them ahead of the human species by several evolutionary leaps. Humans simply can’t be trusted. We ruin everything and never understand each other. Pondering what a person is thinking is stressful; pondering what an animal is thinking is my personal passion. They inspire me to live a simpler life. They’re pure little angels.

Pet IG accounts, just like animals themselves, are never braggadocious, spicy or dramatic unless you want them to be. They never have ulterior motives. Unless they’re selling you something, which — listen, animals make the cutest sales associates. Kylie Jenner selling weight-loss tea is annoying. A cat selling a Pavlovian-esque automatic feeder is adorable and meta.

None of this is new information for the modern heart-having Instagram user. We all know our our Toasts, our Grumpy Cats, our Marnies, our Lil Bubs, our Menswear Dogs, our Cats of Instagrams, but do you know your Pinpins, your Pumpkins, your Bagels? It’s time to get more niche. Below, I’ve catalogued 16 of my personal favorite animal Instagram accounts. This is a mere starter pack. And I’ll warn you, I have very specific tastes. Also, please consider my self-editing re: the number of cats on this list as the sole token of my restraint henceforth. Then go ahead and tag the shit out of your fave animal IG accounts below because there’s always room for more on MY feed.

Below, my recs, categorized by [a loose definition of] species.

Raccoon: @pumpkintheraccoon

A post shared by Pumpkin The Raccoon (@pumpkintheraccoon) on Oct 17, 2016 at 5:58am PDT

Pumpkin is chill as fuck. First of all, he lives with two dogs. Second of all, he’s a fucking raccoon living in a house. He sits on the couch like this exclusively and he breaks into the trash constantly because he’s LITERALLY a raccoon. Follow immediately.

Guinea pig: @ludwik_guinea_pig

A post shared by Ludwik (@ludwik_guinea_pig) on May 22, 2017 at 7:13am PDT

Ludwik is a hairless guinea pig and he’s incredible. His facial hair is genuinely stomach-turning. All of his posts are styled shoots and all his captions are shallow, unattributed aphorisms. This one was: “Be strong. You never know who you’re inspiring.” Where’s the lie?

Shih tzu: @dailydougie

Nope.

A post shared by Dougie the Shih Tzu (@dailydougie) on Apr 2, 2017 at 11:34am PDT

Dougie is a living stuffed animal genetically engineered to turn your heart into a dog bed. His ears are always fashioned into a chic bob and his body is stuffed with cotton. Follow.

Squirrel: @sara4309 

A post shared by sara (@sara4309) on May 16, 2017 at 2:57pm PDT

Sara4309 is bold, and not just because her handle has four numbers at the end of it like a popular girl’s AIM screen name in 1998. Her knit bowler hats are out of style and yet look on-point. I can’t say I know a lot about Sara4309 personally because all of her captions are in Japanese, but her life is colorful & inspiring, so.

Hedgehog: @theadventuresofhedgy

A post shared by Hedgy & Friends