Casey Recommends: Cat Instagram
Or Dog IG, or Bunny IG, or Pig IG... I'm sure that's a thing
After our housepanther Bixby magically entered our lives in 2016, I created my @lifeofbixby Instagram account to solve a familiar problem: too many photos on my camera roll and nothing to do with them.
(As you can imagine, this did not solve anything. Six and a half years later, I do not take fewer cat photos. No one does. This is a problem no one will ever find the answer to.)
I didn’t really set too many ground rules when starting it, but I made the conscious decision that, as a cat account, I would only follow other animal-focused accounts. Other cats (what’s their deal?), dogs, mini donkeys, hedgehogs, all fair game.
What I didn’t consciously realize was that by curating a feed of floofs and chonks and a few good puppos, I was creating a haven of happiness and therapeutic escape.
On Cat Instagram, there’s a steady stream of adorable activities and distractable faces. There are bodega cats casually claiming their territory and kitten shenanigans and cats being stuffed into holiday sweaters and adventure cats exploring mountains and deserts and lots of cats being places they shouldn’t be. Like the kitchen counter.
Of course, there are also tragedies and setbacks, just like in regular human life. I’ve become connected to some of the humans behind the cat accounts I follow, and when they share their challenges, I empathize. When a cat passes, I cry real tears.
But on Cat Instagram, the stakes are low. It’s a place where I don’t feel compelled to self-promote or overcompensate or anything. I’m just speaking as a cat on the internet, in my persona as the Chief Floof Officer and the most confident boy in the room, giving virtual high fives (paw fives) to all my other cat friends and making really dumb jokes.
All of this I’m sure applies to a dog-focused Instagram feed, or a bunny-focused one, or a bird-focused one too. The point isn’t the species; it’s the unfettered glee it can bring to your life.
Yes, social media is problematic and I’ve basically abandoned most of it. But I’m grateful to have the refuge of Cat Instagram in my life.
If you have an Instagram for your pet, tell me about it in the comments! And if you don’t, that’s fine. But maybe take some time to look at your feed and unfollow some of the accounts that don’t make you so happy (even mine, I don’t care!). And follow a few that bring you pure joy.