This Big Apple celeb won’t mind if you give her a hug on the street.
A 5 1/2-year-old golden retriever has been garnering media attention — and Instagram fame — for the hugs she gives out as she and her owner walk around Chelsea.
Loubie, short for Louboutina, first started “hugging” passersby a few years ago, after learning how to shake hands and stand on her hind legs, her owner Cesar Fernandez-Chavez said.
Fernandez-Chavez started an Instagram account after a photo he took of her hugging actor Gerard Butler blew up on his Facebook page, he said.
Loubie with actor Gerard Butler. (Courtesy of Cesar Fernandez-Chavez)
“[Loubie] just happened to be holding hands with me… and [Butler] just happened to see us, and he was like, ‘No, this is not for real,’” Fernandez-Chavez recalled. “[My friends] said, ‘You need to start her an Instagram.’”
Since then, Fernandez-Chavez has been posting and re-posting photos of Loubie hugging passersby, standing on her hind legs and holding hands with people she meets on their walks.
The dog, who has more than 11,000 followers on Instagram, was recently profiled by Time Out New York and the dog-centric blog Rover.
She’s even been able to get tech-obsessed New Yorkers to look up from their phones, Fernandez-Chavez said.
“We’re so glued to our phones, but then [passersby] take a second to admire her and talk to us,” he said. “She’s making random people happy on the street, and that makes me happy too.”