The Salinas corgi mix taking social media by storm enjoys romping, shopping and playing for keeps.

IN THE PANTHEON OF SOCIAL MEDIA ANIMALS, THERE ARE CERTAINLY DOGS WITH LARGER FOLLOWINGS. In suburban Chicago, there’s Pudge the Pit, a rescue pooch whose Instagram bio reads “stray, adopted, fancy, Jewish, house hippo, land manatee” and who has 114,000 people following his slow-moving, plodding lifestyle as narrated by his hysterically funny owner. There’s Pavlov, a Southern California low-rider with his own line of merchandise who’s been photographed for his 110,000 IG followers riding a skateboard, frolicking on various beaches and wearing costumes with a somewhat humiliated look on his long-snooted face.

In Monterey County, there appears to be one dog to rule them all, a blue-eyed, silky coated, blue merle-colored dreamboat of an augie (that’s half corgi, half Australian shepherd) who enjoys watching nature documentaries (not even kidding), playing with toys (although she’s a “no take, only throw” kind of girl) and running the yard of her Salinas home with her half-sister, a more traditional-looking corgi named Ellie.

Zira is her name. Attention is her game. And she gets a ton of it. On Instagram, where @zirathecorgi has 57,500 followers (making her a bona fide social media “influencer”). Followers include local people who recognize Zira on the street from her social media presence, and brands and retailers like Home Depot and Kmart, which have sought out her owners to pay them to review products they sell and post those reviews online.

Zira’s people – Kasey Donovan, a freelance SEO writer, and Jesse Tober, who works in retail – bonded over their shared love of corgis. They found a breeder in Prunedale a few years ago and just went to check out the pups, not necessarily expecting they would eventually bring one home. The breeder had a momma dog with a litter due in a month, and all but one of the puppies was already spoken for.

When that litter was born in October 2017, the couple went back to check out the remaining pup.

“As soon as I saw that tiny white cloud, I said, ‘That’s mine.’” A month-plus later, when she was old enough to be separated from her mother, Donovan and Tober brought home the dog they named Zira, after one of the main antagonists in The Lion King. Ellie, whose mother is the same as Zira’s and who’s also named after a Disney character, came home a year later. Rounding out the trio: a rescue cat adopted from the SPCA named Purrdita, also named after (say it with me) a Disney character.

Here are the things Zira loves, according to Donovan: playing; playing with Ellie; playing with toys; chasing the ball; fighting to not give up the ball; those aforementioned nature documentaries; and going to the beach.

Zira and Ellie “are best friends. They’re constantly playing and that’s good for Zira because she needs to burn off energy, and Ellie is a chill dog – she’s obsessed with belly rubs – so Zira keeps her active,” Tober says. “They play all the time.”

And Zira also appears to like shopping. After Donovan and Tober posted a picture in January 2018 of Zira looking super-derpy, a big corgi grin on her face and her paws perched on the edge of a shopping cart at Target, shopping has become a thing. That shot garnered more than 11,000 “likes” and an awareness for Donovan and Tober that not all stores are pet-friendly unless the dog is a service animal. They issued a hearty apology and made it part of their mission to seek out pet-friendly retailers and spread that news to fellow dog owners.

“We never thought her account would blow up the way it has and get so huge,” Donovan says. “It’s pretty weird but it happened suddenly when we posted that picture of her in a shopping cart and it went viral super fast.

“But I think it makes sense,” Donovan adds. “There’s a lot of negativity on social media and a lot of people want to see something cute and happy and we get to play a small role in that. These dogs make us happy everyday. They make us smile and so it makes sense they do the same for other people.”

Follow Zira and Ellie at instagram.com/zirathecorgi