Family Life

9-year-old's Twitter account is the most wholesome thing we've ever seen

You can stop following anyone on Twitter right now because this adorable account wins. 

9-year-old Gideon Kidd has made it the mission of his young life to pet as many dogs as he can. His mother, Rachel Braunigan, then takes a picture of Gideon with the dog and posts it to his blog, along with a brief description from Gideon. 

The blog contains over 300 dogs he has petted. Mum Rachel hoped that the Twitter account would draw attention to the blog. It did. 

His goal is to reach “at least 1 million dogs.”

While that number of dogs may be out of the limits fo his city, that won't stop Gideon.

“Not in my city, but in the world? Heck, yeah,” he said, speaking to TODAY.

In September 2016, he started a website “I’ve Pet That Dog!” as a way to show the world his new canine friendships. 

“I love dogs,” he said. “I want people to see that these dogs are great animals.”

His favourite breed is Chihuahua, he even had a Chihuahua fan club with some friends. His second favourite is the slightly bigger Saint Bernard. 

He explains that he always asks the owner for permission and holds out his hand for the dog to sniff before petting them. 

“I was thinking nowadays people don’t just go look at a website, they look at a feed where things go by,” mum Rachel explained.

Interest in the Twitter page has pretty much exploded overnight, from 500 to 42,000 followers. 

The pair have started searching further afield for friendly dogs. 

“We have pretty much depleted the neighbourhood dogs,” Rachel said. She usually drives Gideon around looking for people out walking their dogs. 

“They usually look very surprised. A car suddenly pulls over and out jumps a kid running after them? But most of the time, people are very nice,” she continued.

She never expected the overwhelming support and outpouring of love for her son's project. 

“I never thought it would be anywhere near this big. It’s pretty incredible. Gideon’s excited about it, but I don’t think he understands the scope of it.”

On the other hand, she completely understands why so many people are drawn to the account. 

“It’s simple and it’s sweet. It’s obviously a child that’s doing this,” she said. “There’s no ulterior motive, there’s no gimmick. Here’s the dog I met, here’s a little bit about that dog, look at my picture. That’s it.”

Well you've definitely got us hooked! 

Check out some of the most paw-fect friends Gideon has made: 

Just made our day! 

Search
Search results for
View all