In today’s “animals acting human” news, I have recently been alerted to an Instagram account for a toad named Toby. And yes, it is the best thing I’ve ever seen.
Let me just start by saying I am unusually obsessed with animals acting like people. Bears Acting Human is my all-time favourite Twitter account, so when my coworker alerted me to this account this afternoon, I quite frankly lost my shit.
Toby Toad (@yaboi_toby_toad) in an Instagram account held by 23-year-old college student Savannah Mikell. As expected, it depicts the glorious of life of her pet toad, Toby. The toad is technically a wild animal, but regularly frequents her garden and poses for photos, so for the purpose of the story we’re just going to call him a pet.
Toby is just living his life in Florida, where he frequently stops by Savannah’s house to take a new ‘gram shot for his fans.
Because of Toby’s regular visits, Savannah decided to start taking staged photos of him acting human.
“I garden a lot, and I always noticed this one toad that had vibrant colors and a lot of spots,” Mikell said. “I thought it would be funny to take a piece of furniture from a dollhouse that I own and put him on the couch. At first, it was meant to be a joke for my Facebook friends, but it blew up, and I kept including the toad in more scenes.”
Toby has now amassed a whopping 43.7k followers (more than 10x more than the account owner), and honestly, he deserves every single one of them. The account has 79 posts and they’re all incredible.
Yes, Toby, I would love to play Monopoly with you.
Since his account blew up, Savannah has started making her own props and browsing the internet for more elaborate accessories for the adorable toad.
“Ever since Toby has gotten more attention online, I want to keep adding new props and items in the pictures,” Mikell said. “I’m very gentle with him. He’s either sitting, or I prop him up so it looks like he’s holding the object or table.”
Yes, Savannah, please don’t stop giving us this spicy content.
Who needs influencers when you can surround yourself with positive accounts filled with animals acting like people? Not me.
“The typical social media influencer might make you feel like you have to go work out or appear a certain way,” she said. “With an account that’s an animal and something more lighthearted, there’s nothing to compare yourself to — it’s just something funny, and something to make you smile.”
And if that’s not enough to warm your heart, this sure will. Toby is still a wild toad. He doesn’t stay in the dollhouse, or even in Savannah’s house, he just comes back frequently enough for her to take photos of him.
“Toby is a happy little porch toad — he lives freely in my walled courtyard and has been hanging out in windows and flowers pots for probably about a year now,” Savannah told BuzzFeed. “Toby stood out to me because he is so sweet and loves to be fed bugs!”
I mean, come on. This is the most entertaining account I’ve ever seen.
