At Nurture Your Pet, our vision is to build a tribe of pet lovers sharing stories and advice about their fur babies 🐶🐾 We are so grateful for our community, and we are thrilled to be featuring members of our NYP family! For our third Pawrent Spotlight, we are overjoyed to introduce you to Christian along with his adoring and amusing Shiba Inu, Kenji (on Instagram as @kenji.shibe) ❤️
NYP: Tell us about yourself and Kenji - where are you from?
C&K: Kenji was born here in the wonderful state of Florida, and I was born in Peru but lived most of my formative years in DC.
NYP: When/How did Kenji become a part of your family?
C&K: I had Kenji ever since he was 8 weeks old, and the day I met him he waddled over to me. I picked him up and he took one long yawn, then put his head on my shoulder and snoozed off. I knew we were going to bond quickly.
NYP: What’s a typical day-in-the-life routine for Kenji?
C&K: Kenji sleeps in the bed with his mom and I. He will wake up before us sometimes but still waits until the alarm goes off before celebrating by licking both our faces to say hello. Next, he will eat breakfast, play with his ball, go for his walk, and then he will sunbathe throughout the day.
I work from home, so we spend all day together. He randomly goes into my office to make sure I’m still there and then he goes back to sunbathing.
NYP: What is your favorite thing to do with Kenji?
C&K: We’ve grown to be quite pro at napping together. He will ball himself up and sleep either on my shoulder or on my stomach; just like he did when he was a tiny fuzz ball.
NYP: What’s one of your funniest memories of Kenji?
C&K: The day he learned how to dive under the couch, and he wouldn’t stop making weird sounds. He almost sounded like a fox, and he kept sprinting into every room only to sprint back and slide under the couch.
NYP: Do you have any advice, stories, or anything else that you would like to share?
C&K: Advice for others in the Shiba Inu community – Prepare for your Shiba, but don’t feel like every rule you read about their personality is going to be true. You can influence how loving and cuddly they are by marking sure they are always surrounded by love. Even an independent, aloof Shiba Inu can become a big softie.
Follow Kenji’s cuddles and couch dives on Instagram: @kenji.shibe
