![]() This is just the sort of thing that happens for Benji. Benji, meanwhile, lifts his leg to casually scratch his ear, as if to convey how nonchalant he feels about his potential TV debut. “Who knows? Maybe Benji TV could be a series someday,” she says. There’s even a cartoon in the works, which Mishler code-names “Benji TV.” She won’t share much about it yet, but she does say it will include lessons about mindfulness and breath control. Then there was that terrier, Uggie, from The Artist-but that was a decade ago.Īnd Benji’s star is still rising. Giggy, the beloved Pomeranian of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Vanderpump Rules, probably came close before his tragic passing in 2020. But few dogs have ascended to the vertiginous heights of canine stardom that Benji currently occupies. Now any cute pet whose owner has a smartphone and ambition is a potential social media sensation. Gone are the days when only high-powered studio execs could pluck a dog (and several of its look-alikes) from obscurity and thrust it into the spotlight, à la Lassie, Wishbone, Beethoven, and even Benji’s namesake, Benji. He wears his celebrity lightly, even though he’s one of the most famous dogs in America right now. It is the look of someone utterly at ease in his own fur, confident that wherever he goes, everyone will be thrilled to see him. At the coffee shop, he signals that he would like to be in my lap by sitting upright and placing his wide gray paws gently but insistently on my legs. As one YouTube commenter put it, “Sometimes I show up for myself, and sometimes I show up for Benji! Because he is so cute!”īenji is comfortable with the attention. These cameos are, for some viewers, reason enough to spend twenty to forty minutes folding their bodies like napkins at a fancy restaurant. Sometimes he’ll pad in front of the camera while she holds a boat pose, or he’ll languidly recline in a corner of the studio as she moves through a sun salutation. Now the channel has over 9.9 million subscribers, many of whom have watched Benji grow from a potato-size puppy into a poised, laid-back adult who steals scenes in Mishler’s videos. Ever since he first appeared in Mishler’s life-in a box beneath a Christmas tree in 2014, as a gift from a then boyfriend-he’s been a beloved staple of her social media posts and her wildly popular YouTube channel, Yoga With Adriene, which she launched in 2012. The world is happy to greet Benji in any state. He doesn’t enjoy collars or bandannas, so except for his harness and leash-which he is required to wear periodically, both for personal safety and in compliance with Austin’s leash laws-he prefers to greet the world au naturel whenever possible. This is basically the extent of Benji’s regular wardrobe. Benji himself is dressed tastefully but minimally, in a navy-blue harness that flatters his broad chest and shoulders, and a faded navy rope leash with elegant brass accents. The decor is all clean lines and pale wood and concrete, the coffee beans sustainably sourced. ![]() We meet outside one of his and Mishler’s favorite coffee shops, in East Austin, on an overcast morning in May. He would like to sit in my lap, if that’s all right.īenji, a six-year-old, forty-pound blue heeler, is the canine companion of YouTube yoga celebrity Adriene Mishler. He’s like George Clooney, if Clooney were shorter and hairier, had a sense of smell that was 100,000 times better, and pooped along a north-south axis in alignment with the Earth’s magnetic field, as dogs are suspected to do. ![]() His distinguished salt-and-pepper fur is very soft, silky against your hands when you stroke the fuzzy slope of his back or when you bury your face in the crook of his neck and coo that he is a good boy, the best, and also an angel. His eyes are the rich, liquid brown of a half-melted chocolate bar. ![]() Benji has the square, earnest jaw of a high school quarterback who’s about to win state.
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