Lionel and Lilo Are Two Instagram Hedgehogs Who Love Travel and Tiny Hats
This prickly pair is about to steal your heart.
Who says hedgehogs aren’t glamorous?
One Instagram post at a time, Lionel and Lilo are proving that these pets adore a jet set life complete with haute couture. The hedgehogs, who belong to Charleston, South Carolina-based PR Consultant Anna Mathis, have over 115,000 followers and are the stars of an accidental fame.
Their rise to adorable influencers started when Mathis received Lionel from her little sister’s friend, who could no longer care for the animal. Mathis quickly realized that Lionel was naturally photogenic, so she started an Instagram account just for him, which showed off his poses, travels around town and itsy-bitsy, but extensive, wardrobe. Lionel’s fame went from minor to major after Joe Jonas discovered the spiky cutie online and reposted one of his photos. After this, followers skyrocketed.
“I just started this because I wanted a collection of pictures — it wasn’t meant to be famous at all. Joe Jonas posted that one and that blew it up a little bit,” Mathis told Charleston City Paper.
Lilo joined the account later, which only added to Lionel’s already impressive numbers, but that doesn’t matter to him. What is important to both Lionel and Lilo is that they get their favorite treat — worms — after a successful photo shoot.
Along with keeping creepy crawlies on hand, Mathis makes sure she keeps her pets happy by never forcing them to pose when they aren’t feeling it and by respecting the prickly pair’s nocturnal life style.
Both Lionel and Lilo are African pygmy hedgehogs, which is the most common kind of hedgehog. But before you get a Lionel or Lilo of your own, Mathis says you need to be prepared, which means be ready to clean up a lot of poop and give a lot of baths. If you aren’t ready for that responsibility, you can live vicariously through Lionel and Lilo’s Instagram.