Tuna Melts My Heart
Barkfest, NYC, May 22nd, 2016. Have you ever loved somebody so much it makes you cry? I will never forget when I was introduced to the Instagram @tunameltsmyheart. He was the most glorious animal I had ever seen, and I was instantly obsessed with his overbite that constantly makes him look like he's smiling. Tuna immediately became my favorite Insta pet (with the merch to boot). I got his book, calendar, and a t-shirt with the truest statement in the world, "Tuna is my spirit animal". His story is so sweet and his personality shines through with every picture that is just too cute and totally Tuna.
When Barkfest 2016 was announced, the only Insta pet scheduled to appear was Marnie the dog. I had already wanted to go, but if Tuna was going it wasn't even a question. As soon as Tuna announced he'd be doing a meet & greet at Barkfest I bought my ticket. I knew this would be the meet & greet of all meet & greets - believe me when I say this was just as important to me as meeting a Jonas Brother, which if you know anything about me means a lot. I didn't know exactly what his appearance would entail, but I knew either way I was going to cry. I never thought I'd actually get the opportunity to meet Tuna, and when I saw him get wheeled in his traveling case I screamed of surrealness. I was so nervous to meet him, because I didn't want to it to be over in the blink of an eye. Does he even know how much he means to me? Of course he does, he's a toodlebrain.
Not to my surprise, I wasn't the only one donning Tuna merch, but thankfully I was the first in line wearing a Tuna shirt. It was a chilly day for May so I was unfortunately covering it with a jacket, but me and Tuna were matching in our pink attire (he had several outfit changes during his meet & greet because he's amazing). I made sure to show him and his mommy my shirt, and everyone went crazy for it. Once everyone realized what was going on, the Barkfest professional photographer started taking pictures of us. I was so overjoyed to see Tuna live in the flesh I just wanted to squeeze him, but I didn't want to make him unhappy because he was a little snippy with someone earlier that tried to hug him. I couldn't handle his rejection, so I just pet him and told him I loved him.
After my Tuna photo shoot I wavered and just watched him lovingly from a far. I wanted to take it in because I don't know how many NY meet & greets he'll ever do considering he's a Cali dog. You might find it funny that this story is on my celebrity stalking blog, but this mystical creature with 1.8M Instagram followers is definitely a celebrity to me. Tuna, I hope you find your way back to NY one day, I would love to see you again!
P.S. - A note to Tuna: May your days be filled with an abundance of Collins 😁
